To what extent are these people just sucking off the government teet? What would the health care industry look like without the hundreds of billions of dollars injected into it by medicare/medicaid? Would healthcare workers still be high paid and most lose their jobs since only those with insurance or wealthy could afford them? Or would things be more competitive so they would only make a fraction of what they do today? Does anyone actually believe the services these people provide are worth trillions and trillions of dollars? My taxes are too high to put up with this B/S.
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Are Doctors today basically just welfare recipients that put in a little work?
- Thread starter lighnintrade
- Start date
Some big generalizations here...
Admittedly, I've seen some very incompetent docs--especially in the military. All the good military docs I knew left as soon as they did their required time. In one case, I looked over the shoulder of an MD as he was thumbing through his book and found the "answer" before he did. Not too comforting.
There are certainly exceptions, though. These guys are on to something and have some really good insight. And they don't take Medicare:
http://www.surgerycenterok.com/?gclid=CMiPpv6J86wCFVCR7QodLjq4uQ
Admittedly, I've seen some very incompetent docs--especially in the military. All the good military docs I knew left as soon as they did their required time. In one case, I looked over the shoulder of an MD as he was thumbing through his book and found the "answer" before he did. Not too comforting.
There are certainly exceptions, though. These guys are on to something and have some really good insight. And they don't take Medicare:
http://www.surgerycenterok.com/?gclid=CMiPpv6J86wCFVCR7QodLjq4uQ
For the most part, the doctors that people deal with are candy dispensers. You have a little sniffle? Here's some antibiotics? You want some extra cash in college so you pretend you can't pay attention? Here's some ritalin to sell to your friends.
The ones with real talent all have research jobs. The rest of them are salesmen.
The ones with real talent all have research jobs. The rest of them are salesmen.
Quote from lighnintrade:
To what extent are these people just sucking off the government teet? What would the health care industry look like without the hundreds of billions of dollars injected into it by medicare/medicaid? Would healthcare workers still be high paid and most lose their jobs since only those with insurance or wealthy could afford them? Or would things be more competitive so they would only make a fraction of what they do today? Does anyone actually believe the services these people provide are worth trillions and trillions of dollars? My taxes are too high to put up with this B/S.
I've asked this very same question, albeit the path to becoming an MD is stringent enough to garner respect. The massive fraud in medicare/medicaid is probably responsible for a significant portion of "economic growth". Just like all of the other wasteful government spending. Without it, we'd quickly realize that almost every industry is completely dependent upon this sort of thing and all of the cries for "less government interference" really amount to "keep the subsidies flowing, but still continue to privatize my profits and socialize my losses".
Quote from TheGoonior:
So I'm guessing that Jesus is your health care plan?
Are you an atheist? Isn't part of atheism not just rejecting religious beliefs but also rejecting archaic status quos (such as critically examining why someone is a "doctor" while someone else who has fast research skills can find the same answers but more efficiently)?
Quote from lighnintrade:
What would the health care industry look like without the hundreds of billions of dollars injected into it by medicare/medicaid?
It would be very interesting to know exactly how much a Dr receive's of a Medicare/medicaid dollar. Like everything else, the bureaucracy probably consumes most of the money.
My guess it's probably a loss for a Dr to treat a medicare/medicaid patient unless the Dr needs a tax write off, otherwise the Dr should just go play golf.
Medicare reimburses office visits at around $85 per visit [1], though precise reimbursements vary by region. At $85 per visit, a primary care physician seeing nothing but Medicare patients could expect to receive $293,760 in annual reimbursements. Subtracting out the physicianâs annual overhead provides an estimate of the physicianâs salary. According to this physiciansâ overhead spreadsheet, 50% is a good target for a primary care physicianâs overhead. Overhead cannot fall below 100-150k for most physicians, as many expenses are fixed. This would leave our example physician with net income of roughly $147,000 annually.
While Medicare reimbursements may be sufficient for a primary care physician to make ends meet, what is the situation with Medicaid reimbursements? Medicaid pays significantly less than Medicare, with reimbursements averaging roughly 60% of Medicare. This implies that Medicaid would pay less than $50 for an office visit. If our example doctor saw only Medicaid patients, they would gross $172,800 in annual reimbursements. Unfortunately, overhead costs tend to be fixed, so the doctor would still have around $147,000 in overhead, leaving a net income of only $26,000! This helps explain why only 40% of doctors nationwide will accept all Medicaid patients.
With hard work, it is possible to make an extraordinary living even from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. I know a family practice physician who works incredibly hard, seeing patients 6 1/2 days a week for 10-12 hours a day, and averaging close to 40 patients a day! He lives in a poor community with many Medicaid patients, but his patient volume (due in part to his efficiency, seeing a patient every 15 minutes) makes up the difference since overhead is relatively fixed. By having over 12,000 appointments a year, this doctor is able to take home roughly half a million per year, likely in the top 1% of all family practice doctors nationwide. While this cannot be expected of all doctors, it is possible to make money while serving the poor on Medicaid!
http://truecostblog.com/2010/03/10/do-doctors-really-lose-money-on-medicare/
While Medicare reimbursements may be sufficient for a primary care physician to make ends meet, what is the situation with Medicaid reimbursements? Medicaid pays significantly less than Medicare, with reimbursements averaging roughly 60% of Medicare. This implies that Medicaid would pay less than $50 for an office visit. If our example doctor saw only Medicaid patients, they would gross $172,800 in annual reimbursements. Unfortunately, overhead costs tend to be fixed, so the doctor would still have around $147,000 in overhead, leaving a net income of only $26,000! This helps explain why only 40% of doctors nationwide will accept all Medicaid patients.
With hard work, it is possible to make an extraordinary living even from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. I know a family practice physician who works incredibly hard, seeing patients 6 1/2 days a week for 10-12 hours a day, and averaging close to 40 patients a day! He lives in a poor community with many Medicaid patients, but his patient volume (due in part to his efficiency, seeing a patient every 15 minutes) makes up the difference since overhead is relatively fixed. By having over 12,000 appointments a year, this doctor is able to take home roughly half a million per year, likely in the top 1% of all family practice doctors nationwide. While this cannot be expected of all doctors, it is possible to make money while serving the poor on Medicaid!
http://truecostblog.com/2010/03/10/do-doctors-really-lose-money-on-medicare/
Quote from fixedgrin88:
Are you an atheist? Isn't part of atheism not just rejecting religious beliefs but also rejecting archaic status quos (such as critically examining why someone is a "doctor" while someone else who has fast research skills can find the same answers but more efficiently)?
I might be wrong, but i don't think he is poking fun about jesus or religion in general. The person he said it to sounds to have displeasure towards doctors. so that was his joke. HA!