Stop licensing doctors?

[bamx2]

Organizations like the AMA put restraint on on the # medical scholols to keep the salaries up. My dad was a professor at at a US medical school and directed a residency program . His better studends were quite often Americans who went to foreign med schools because they couldn't get in to the us AMA certified medical schools . The AMA for doctors and the ABA for lawyers are really self serving solely there to protect the livelihood of their members not the people who they serve .

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: KevinH
I can't speak for every doctor but I can speak for my sister and some of her friends going through residency rigth now. THey' effectively been going through school for 4 years undergrad studying non-stop for the most competitive field to gain admittance (not counting pro athletics and entertainers obviously). As a reward, they got several more years of medical school where like law school they did nothing but study yet again. The good part comes now when theyr'e working 80 hours and getting $36000 a year for their efforts. The cool thing about this is that they get to do this for three years before being done. Oh yeah, there's the part about being saddled with a 100-200K debt upon graduation ...the cost of a home in some places in America. So 11-12 years after begining the process that had no garuntees to be successful, studying in the most competitive field, being saddled with an outrageous debt...a doctor can finally make six figures and up. Personally, HELL yeah doctors get what they deserve. Whether or not hte process itself needs addressing is another matter.

I think we need to take another look at the process of becoming a doctor.

Here in the US they do 8 years of college before getting to the residency stage, 4 of which do not impart any medical education. The 3 years of residency are the years to gain on the job experience to hone their skills as professionals. So basically they only do 4 years of medical college out of 8 years of study.

My daughter is a first year med student in London (UK) and her college will be almost 6.5 years before she gets into the residency program. She joined college after high school. So she will have attended college for 6.5 years as opposed to 8 years here in the US.

She is studying medical subject from year one and will be attending training hospitals for clinicals from year 2. I believe she will end up with a better medical education than if she had studied here. (Being in one of best colleges there - Imperial - no doubt helps). I could never understand the need to do 4 years of liberal arts or humanities if one wants to become a doctor. And the bonus for me is that since her mother is a UK citizen (& lives there) her fees are 1/10th of what they would have been there. If she had to pay for her education her debt at the end would be no more than 30-40K. It costs me almost that much per year for my son who is a freshman at Rutgers.

That is a better way to increase the pool of doctors and IMHO have them better prepared for their residency.

 

[Pliablemoose]

PSA:

They have a name for the physician that graduates at the bottom of the class, anyone know what it is?



















































Doctor

 

[alent1234]

Originally posted by: Condor

Originally posted by: alent1234

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: Tom
stop giving 20-30% of our health care dollars to insurance companies. (I made those numbers up, btw, but I bet it's somewhere in that range)

only way to get better healthcare for less money. The economic model that led to the idea of private insurance, doesn't work for healthcare, it just adds a layer of cost.

The problem with insurance currently, is that medical insurance is not being used for insurance. It is being used for everything. Insurance is supposed to be for the unexpected, not every cold and sniffel.

what else is new? people want every service under the sun and don't want to pay for it. today everyone wants an unlimited supply of the numerous lifestyle drugs out there and someone else to pick up the bill.

If mechanics charged like doctors, it would cost 300K for a tune up!

Mechanics already try to pad the bill with unneeded services. Difference is that people see real money leaving their pockets and say no. With medical "insurance" the employer or some insurance company pays the bill and people don't care if the doctor runs a bunch of unneeded tests since it's nothing out of their pocket except the normal co-pay. They only complain when the insurance company raises the premium or the co-pays. Then it's not fair.

 

[alent1234]

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor

Originally posted by: KevinH
I can't speak for every doctor but I can speak for my sister and some of her friends going through residency rigth now. THey' effectively been going through school for 4 years undergrad studying non-stop for the most competitive field to gain admittance (not counting pro athletics and entertainers obviously). As a reward, they got several more years of medical school where like law school they did nothing but study yet again. The good part comes now when theyr'e working 80 hours and getting $36000 a year for their efforts. The cool thing about this is that they get to do this for three years before being done. Oh yeah, there's the part about being saddled with a 100-200K debt upon graduation ...the cost of a home in some places in America. So 11-12 years after begining the process that had no garuntees to be successful, studying in the most competitive field, being saddled with an outrageous debt...a doctor can finally make six figures and up. Personally, HELL yeah doctors get what they deserve. Whether or not hte process itself needs addressing is another matter.

I think we need to take another look at the process of becoming a doctor.

Here in the US they do 8 years of college before getting to the residency stage, 4 of which do not impart any medical education. The 3 years of residency are the years to gain on the job experience to hone their skills as professionals. So basically they only do 4 years of medical college out of 8 years of study.

My daughter is a first year med student in London (UK) and her college will be almost 6.5 years before she gets into the residency program. She joined college after high school. So she will have attended college for 6.5 years as opposed to 8 years here in the US.

She is studying medical subject from year one and will be attending training hospitals for clinicals from year 2. I believe she will end up with a better medical education than if she had studied here. (Being in one of best colleges there - Imperial - no doubt helps). I could never understand the need to do 4 years of liberal arts or humanities if one wants to become a doctor. And the bonus for me is that since her mother is a UK citizen (& lives there) her fees are 1/10th of what they would have been there. If she had to pay for her education her debt at the end would be no more than 30-40K. It costs me almost that much per year for my son who is a freshman at Rutgers.

That is a better way to increase the pool of doctors and IMHO have them better prepared for their residency.

Just because someone doesn't take pre-med doesn't mean it's a waste. If they major in bio or chemistry or something similar it's a good base for medical school.

 

[MedicBob]

Stop licencing M.D.'s and D.O.'s so people can go to other licenced health care providers, ie RN's, PA's, etc? What would that help? Or are you saying we should eliminate all licencing of allied health care providers?

Licencing at least lets you know those people have met the education standards of that stae the are practicing in vs just guessing at it.