Nine hundred dollar cure for Hepatitus C

[jmowreader]

25. Here's the flipside of that $78K

Army doctors do not have to:

pay malpractice insurance premiums, because they cannot be sued
keep an attorney on retainer, just in case
pay for nurses, medical assistants, transcriptionists or lab techs, because the Army pays for them
pay rent on their offices, because the Army already owns the building they're in
pay for billing and coding staff, because their patients do not pay for care
pay for their own Continuing Medical Education
pay the lion's share of their student loans, because the military gives them that $400K sign-on bonus
buy supplies
worry about whether their patients can afford a procedure or their meds
have to fight with an insurance company to try to convince them to cover something they're supposed to
have to deal with patients who know they need a medication they saw on TV, and have to tell them (1) they don't need it, (2) it probably won't work anyway and (3) it's $950 for one bottle of pills
keep up on the payments on a $75,000 Mercedes just because it's obvious that any doctor who doesn't drive a really expensive car must not be much of a doctor
have to buy advertising
make house payments because the Army will assign you a set of quarters

By the time you subtract all the things a $400K civilian physician has to spend just to be in business, he may take home less money than the Army captain.