How is Obamacare going to help you?

[Guest032516]

Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

You gotta get the doctors to where the uninsured people are. and make a whole shitload more of them.

Good luck with that.

I don't pretend to have the solution to the healthcare crisis. I think it may be a two-tiered system including private plans that cover everything (or you just pay for it out of pocket) and government plans that cap everything and cut off certain treatments after a point.

But we are kidding ourselves about doctors salaries. Even if med school was free, there is a huge opportunity cost to going med school.

After college you do another 4 years of med school and about 8 years of residency, during which time you are paid about $50K per year. So, you finally get to be a full-paid doctor around age 33-34. Only then do you start making real money.

But in the meantime, the people you went to college with have been working for over 10 years already and the smart ones (like you, since you had the IQ for med school) are making $200K+ per year and probably have for several years. They probably started out making $50K/year right out of college (the kind of money you only made as a resident) and kept going up. So they are already FAR ahead of you.

in the past, that was acceptable because a good doctor could reasonably expect to go on to making $300K to $500K depending on specialty.

But now, even that is gone. Because doctors' salaries are going to get squished, along with every other expense.

So, while a doctor may not have to pay med school expenses, there is still the lost opportunity cost. How is the government going to offset that?

I think a big percentage of the top of the class will forego med school and become lawyers, accountants, and business majors. Our loss.

[LovingKayla]

I'm not getting Obamacare. Fuck em. Fine me and put me in jail. I will fight this POS all the way to the mat. They are getting away with it because we just pay them whatever they demand. FUCK THEM. I will not comply.


Communist are red
Liberals are blue
I don't see a difference
And neither should you.


Later bitches

[Yssup Rider]

I don't believe it's up to the government to ensure a plastic surgeon makes 750k a year, while pediatricians are making 125K.

Do you think an anesthesiologist should make half a million a year? Or a radiologist?

Only in America is the pay scale for doctors so upside down. that is one of the things that got our health care delivery system so fucked up to begin with ... Not to mention the ass raping we get from hospitals and their partners in crime, the health plans.

[Guest032516]

Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

I don't believe it's up to the government to ensure a plastic surgeon makes 750k a year, while pediatricians are making 125K.
I never said that. Nor did any one else. I just don't think it's the governments job to dictate prices and salaries.

And the plastic surgery is a bad example if you are trying to pitch healthcare. Those procedures are not covered now and plastic surgeons still make big bucks? That's because when people WANT something they find a way to get the money for it.

The government does not now and will not in the future pay for boob jobs, lip suction, tummy tucks, nose jobs and eye lifts. And yet plastic surgeons make bank. That is because the plastic surgery clinics know they have to get people to pay out of their own pockets. This gave rise to assembly line clinics where doctors move quckly between patient that have already been prepped by other medical personnel. They end up doing a half dozen or more procedues each day. At $3000 to $10,000 each.

The same goes for Lasix eye surgery. The doctors that say they have done 10,000 procedures in advertisements are operating in a large room with a half dozen patients laid out under Lasix machines. They spend about 10 minutes on each patient and charge about $1000 per eye. Do the math.

But there is really no connection between plastic surgeons and other doctors. You can't get people to break bones on a schedule so that hospitals can set up some kind of assembly line to increase efficiency and lower cost.

So the government doesn't have to do anything for the plastic surgeons. They can take care of themselves..

Do you think an anesthesiologist should make half a million a year? Or a radiologist?
Depends on what the market pays, doesn't it? There is no such thing as a "fair" salary - at least not on the high end. If an anesthesiologist can fill up his schedule with operations that pay her $1000 each, that IS the fair salary. What is she supposed to do? Take only $300? And what do you have against anesthesiologists? They are doctors too. Why should they get cut in favor of the heart surgeon? If they fuck up, they can kill you, too.

Only in America is the pay scale for doctors so upside down. that is one of the things that got our health care delivery system so fucked up to begin with ... Not to mention the ass raping we get from hospitals and their partners in crime, the health plans.

I would say doctors are a small fraction of the overall problem.

Hospitals do seem to make up numbers out of thin air.

[jbravo_123]

Originally Posted by ExNYer

Good luck with that.

I don't pretend to have the solution to the healthcare crisis. I think it may be a two-tiered system including private plans that cover everything (or you just pay for it out of pocket) and government plans that cap everything and cut off certain treatments after a point.

But we are kidding ourselves about doctors salaries. Even if med school was free, there is a huge opportunity cost to going med school.

After college you do another 4 years of med school and about 8 years of residency, during which time you are paid about $50K per year. So, you finally get to be a full-paid doctor around age 33-34. Only then do you start making real money.

But in the meantime, the people you went to college with have been working for over 10 years already and the smart ones (like you, since you had the IQ for med school) are making $200K+ per year and probably have for several years. They probably started out making $50K/year right out of college (the kind of money you only made as a resident) and kept going up. So they are already FAR ahead of you.

in the past, that was acceptable because a good doctor could reasonably expect to go on to making $300K to $500K depending on specialty.

But now, even that is gone. Because doctors' salaries are going to get squished, along with every other expense.

So, while a doctor may not have to pay med school expenses, there is still the lost opportunity cost. How is the government going to offset that?

I think a big percentage of the top of the class will forego med school and become lawyers, accountants, and business majors. Our loss.

I don't think your numbers for regular people are quite correct. Median household income for the United States in 2011 was $50,502 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Househo..._United_States). I believe your idea of what "real" money is may be skewed?

I don't feel bad for doctors when they're making the median household income by themselves while they're in residency. Remember, they're getting training for making their much higher salaries in the future while making this income.

Originally Posted by LovingKayla

I'm not getting Obamacare. Fuck em. Fine me and put me in jail. I will fight this POS all the way to the mat. They are getting away with it because we just pay them whatever they demand. FUCK THEM. I will not comply.


Communist are red
Liberals are blue
I don't see a difference
And neither should you.


Later bitches

Are you talking about not getting insurance at all? Because Obamacare isn't an insurance plan...

[LovingKayla]

I won't get anything a government says I must buy, and I won't pay the fines either.