another medical student. most of the relevant points have already been made by my colleagues.
i will only say that if you added up the number of hours of studying, class time, outside research, time spent on rotations and in residency, pretty much all doctors would be making a lot less than the "300k" salary makes it seem. makes me wonder what the per hour rate comes out to be...
just do a search on the administrative costs of U.S. private health insurance companies vs. U.S. government subsidized plans like medicare and medicaid vs. socialized healthcare plans in other countries--it should be very revealing. there's also the issue of prolonging life with medical technology. something like the sickest 20% of the population use up 70% of healthcare spending on expensive, complicated surgeries, etc. maybe if people exercised more, drove in their SUVs less, and ate less meat and more vegetables, less money would be spent on quadruple-bypass surgeries and cholesterol-lowering drugs? what about the 45 (46?) million Americans who don't have any form of health insurance? their emergency medical care is free to them but adds to the bottom line for those who are being insured (not going to even get into the issue of ER closures). pieced together, the arguments in this thread about who/what is the cause of expensive medical care in this country are only skimming the top of the barrel. it is indeed a very complicated issue that hopefully will be rectified in the coming decades.
i will only say that if you added up the number of hours of studying, class time, outside research, time spent on rotations and in residency, pretty much all doctors would be making a lot less than the "300k" salary makes it seem. makes me wonder what the per hour rate comes out to be...
just do a search on the administrative costs of U.S. private health insurance companies vs. U.S. government subsidized plans like medicare and medicaid vs. socialized healthcare plans in other countries--it should be very revealing. there's also the issue of prolonging life with medical technology. something like the sickest 20% of the population use up 70% of healthcare spending on expensive, complicated surgeries, etc. maybe if people exercised more, drove in their SUVs less, and ate less meat and more vegetables, less money would be spent on quadruple-bypass surgeries and cholesterol-lowering drugs? what about the 45 (46?) million Americans who don't have any form of health insurance? their emergency medical care is free to them but adds to the bottom line for those who are being insured (not going to even get into the issue of ER closures). pieced together, the arguments in this thread about who/what is the cause of expensive medical care in this country are only skimming the top of the barrel. it is indeed a very complicated issue that hopefully will be rectified in the coming decades.
Walgreens pharmacist? I'm predicting Felix will want an illegal immigrant making <$3/hr who's other duties include cleaning toliets.
Originally posted by: alchemize
Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
50k was the first stab. Its 75k+ now. Programmers are paid too much too.
I got a programmer making 77K that hunts and pecks. He's OK at COBOL. Horrible at new skills. Hates the world.
You can't pay enough for skilled medical professionals.
I "sort of" know COBOL, can you get me a job at 77k/year?
FelixDeCat
Lifer
- Aug 4, 2000
- 30,797
- 2,620
- 126
Youre right, as previously pointed out, administrative costs are high. And the hospitals use those excessive salaries as an excuse for having to charge $1 per 5 cent cottonball. Of course if youre having to charge $1 per 10 cent cottonball, you cant afford to treat the indigent. And those insurance fatcats earning BILLIONS as also mentioned just being the middlemen are also not helping. Sure some of those uninsured Americans will receive free emergency car (most likely at least subsidized by county hospitals or reimbursed by medicare / medicaid which is also widely abused by the same clinics), but dont think they dont agressively go after those who might have an asset or two like a 30k dollar home. I remember seeing a story of some controversial hospitals suing every indigent patient to at least try to collect from them by default judgements.
Undoubtedly you will be well paid for what you do and hopefully you never drive an SUV, eat meat, etc.
JEDIYoda
Lifer
- Jul 13, 2005
- 33,986
- 3,321
- 126
yeah right!!
I seriously doubt that any nurses salary comes close to that of.....
In fact they are called physician specialists...
http://www.asahq.org/patientEducation/know.htm
They deserve the salaries they get. 100-200k for a doc sounds about right to me.
Becoming a doctor isnt a matter of taking a few classes. It requires near perfection and dedication in school for 10 years - the amount of people who can actually make it through all of that is very small. They basically have to give their life up for those 10 years.
On top of that accrue massive amounts of student loan debt that could buy a house in many places, work ridiculous hours, and often take the responsibility for a patient's life in their hands, not to mention their own entire financial well-being should they be human and make a mistake. That is WAY more responsibility that I'm willing to deal with on the job.
Doctor's salaries aren't the problem - I have a ton of respect for any person who can actually get an MD, let alone deal with all that comes with being a doc.
Uh what?
I think you need to go back and read all my posts in this thread. I've been defending physician salaries the entire time in this thread.
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