Reply #17: Physician incomes SEEM

[Carolina]

large but if you factor in the cost and years of a medical education (i.e. physician indebtedness) and malpractice insurance, you get some perspective.

Medical education --tuition alone for 4 years-- costs anywhere from a low of ~80,000 to high of >$200,000. This does not include books, housing, equipment, etc nor does it take into account any indebtedness from college! So in the end, most doctors complete their education with loan debt equivalent to the mortgage debt for a McMansion!

Then there is malpractice insurance which can easily run into $100,000+ and which is what drives defensive medicine. No doctor will ever make millions of dollars from one case while lawyers do everyday (and they bill for phone calls, emails, whatever -- billable hours)!

Specialists train for years (neurosurgeons 6 years after med school, cardiothoracic surgeons 6 years, general surgeons 5 years after med school, OB-GYNs 4 years after med school, etc.). No doctor controls all the factors encountered in cases/situations but in the legal world, a doctor is held accountable for the outcome and does not get a jury of his/her peers. Moreover, doctors frequently have to juggle diagnostic verbiage so that you can get the care you need (including specialist referrals) covered by insurance and they can get some reimbursement. To see what I'm talking about take a look at those confounded "explanation of benefits" statements you get after office visits, procedures, etc.

The doctors are not the ones profiting from this system nor are they the ones driving it. Insurance companies call the shots.

I will concede that there are greedy bastards everywhere, including medicine, but I work in an acdemic setting and I am awed by:
- the expertise and ethics of many of my colleagues who do good and well but don't bilk the system
- the idealistic medical students who study hard, for long hours, for years and who walk the talk of service in medical school and beyond

Carolina MD

Edited to add: I hate the AMA and never joined. It opposed Medicare and Medicaid, it supported Phil Gramm for POTUS in 1996 :puke: and it's reactive (rather than proactive for good), reactionary and frequently behind the times & on the wrong side!