Comments on: Steps Being Taken to Reduce Physician Shortage

By: plasmacutter94

plasmacutter94 — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:32:49 +0000

When I read an article, Justin, I generally assume it is only part of the puzzle being focused on. I was aware of the DO schools opening, so I noticed the absence of mention on my own; the author addressed that point in the replies, too.
You seem interested in picking a partisan fight, and it is a free country. But your tactics are typical of extremists from both parties in your “attack the messenger, not the message” posts. In the above post, in your attempt to ridicule the author, for example, you completely ignore her point that Bush as admin makes budget proposals that congress deals with. I think we are all aware that our country is polarized around this topic, and I find myself seeking truth and logic right now, not misplaced contempt for an author who wrote an article of limited scope to begin with. Her article was helpful, and thoughtful, and by the number of replies, obviously stimulating for those truly interested in the problem. All posts but yours contributed insight and logic on what is a topic muddied primarily by people such as you decrying “death panels for granny” and other nonsense. Say something that counterpoints in a respectful manner, then I will consider your opinion as worthy of consideration. When my 7-year old nephew demands attention by making a lot of noise, I ignore him. Now, did you have something to say?

By: Justin

Justin — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:48:22 +0000

“Sorry for leaving out the DO schools, I did this article based on research on the AAMC website press releases (as you know, they only accredit MD schools) and other newspaper articles/web media. None of those sources mentioned the new DO schools, so I wasn’t aware of them.”

So, basically, what you’re saying is: I’m sorry for this hack job of an article because I only turned to limited, biased sources, based on my own biases, that were so easy to find that a trained chimp would have a hard time avoiding them, and didn’t really treat this issue with the depth of study and the integrity that it deserves. Further, I am so clueless that I actually think that the AAMC is an accrediting body.

“In 2006, Bush’s proposed budget cut about 4 percent from the NHSC (this cut went through). In 2007, the proposed funding was flat. For 2008, Bush’s proposed budget called for an addition $10 million to be cut, a 7.2% decrease. So the budget for the NHSC, directly due to cuts proposed by our President, has been decreased sigificantly, despite our primary care shortage. I do not exempt the Congress from blame for allowing these cuts to go through.”

So, basically, what you are saying is: You’re right, Scott, I really don’t understand the United States Government and how it works and doesn’t work. That there are three coequal branches, and that there is separation of powers that defines the responsibilities and powers of each. Here, I will prove it. Even further, I will demonstrate that I don’t understand big complicated words like baseline budgeting, or even anything about economics, for that matter, such as the fact that money is not in unlimited supply, the government gets their money from us, there are other things the government is obligated to pay for and other interest groups whine louder than healthcare much of the time.

By: farms

farms — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:56:04 +0000

I was reading all the postings here and was getting pretty discouraged. I’m a premed so I really don’t know anything, but it sounds like there is more than enough happening outside the realm of medicine that would affect one’s career. Which made me think of the military: one of their biggest attractions is the relief of insurance hassles and dealing with all the red tape BS. I was wondering if anyone here had gone that route and what they though of it. Is it really as good as they say it is?

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 24 May 2009 00:20:59 +0000

This brain drain situation is getting to be ridiculous. We have so many kids right here in underserved communities dreaming of becoming physicians without any mentoring programs or even tutoring programs. These kids are at risk of not graduating high school because of the lack of resources they face, let alone making it into college and getting good scores on the MCAT. Instead of shipping doctors here as a temporary solution, why don’t we focus more on a long-term solution and address our educational shortcomings as a country?

In addition to this, those who want to do international medical relief work face the hard decision of going into the communities being forsaken by the brain drain and staying at home where we have a shortage of doctors ourselves. Oh what a dilemma!

By: JessH

JessH — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:49:01 +0000

Hi All! I found this discussion very very interesting. I am myself taking the pre requisites for Medical school but find myself doubting about it because of all the reasons mentioned above.
I was wondering if someone could tell me how important the letter of intent is when applying to Medical School. If I want to do research, would I be placed at the bottom of the list if I say so? Do Med schools favor those applicants that want to practice Medicine (specially since there is a shortage of physicians) over those who want to do Research?
Thank you for your thoughts on this

By: Travis

Travis — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:29:47 +0000

Let’s see how many people want to become doctors after the Democrats socialize medicine in this country…

By: bruce

bruce — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:23:26 +0000

It is always interesting to see opposing lawyers fight it out in court and then go for cocktails at the end of the day. It is easier to find a baseball sized diamond in your back yard than it is to find a lawyer willing to sue his colleagues. On the other hand you can go to any hospital and watch the bloodletting during a Morbidity and Mortality meeting. Doctors have no problem testifying against their fellows because of course they would have done a better job. No one will ever respect the opinions of physicians as they pertain to health care coverage and reimbursements until they appear to speak with one voice. Perhaps it is the competitive nature of our training that makes us eat our own.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:15:02 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with the comments made from jim on june 25th. My father is a pediatric dentist and one of the only dentists in our town to take medicaid kids. Recently, the state audited his charts and tried to fine him $100’s of thousands of dollars for a clerical error in processing medicaid files. It took countless hours for my dad to fight the system, and he threatened to go to the papers. If the state was going to charge him and possibly put him out of business, who was going to take care of those medicaid kids- he threatened to stop taking medicaid, and therefore, families in my town would have to drive over an hour to see a children’s dentist. These threats worked against the state, and they backed down, knowing the outcome of this would potentially cause a great uproar in my county and the state. This shows that if a doctor is willing to fight for it- change can occur and maybe if there are more docs out there to help fight we may actually decrease the “headaches” associated with medicine and increase wages and returns for future docs like myself. . I am a pre-med and will be in medical school this summer. Over the passed two years, I have not had one doctor I know tell me to go into medicine, its saddening. I wish I was encouraged to go into this profession, rather then encouraged to get away from it.

By: vince

vince — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:05:38 +0000

why not let the free market decide how many doctors there will be instead of having central planners? this is a case for freedom!!

By: Future PMD

Future PMD — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:21:30 +0000

I’m impressed with the thought put into most of the posts above. I would say that many of you have summed up many of the struggles that a large portion of physicians are facing today in medicine. I am reminded of the reason that many of my classmates are drawn to fields like anesthesiology, ENT, Optho, Ortho, and EM. In addition to having the opportunity to practice more specialized medicine, many of these applicants want the opportunity to 1) Earn a substantial amount of money and 2)Work somewhat reasonable hours (~50-60/wk).

For those physicians who are not in fields which are the highest earning, there are a wide array of financial responsibilities which chip away at their overall salary. While one would initially think to themselves, “How would earning $140-190k per year not be enough to live a good life?”, one has to remember how much it costs to pay taxes, pay back loans, pay a house payment, pay insurance premiums, raise children, etc. I would however say that after paying for those costs, individuals in the primary care can still make a sufficient amount of money to raise a family. Have you ever met a starving doctor? No. Have you ever met a physician who bought a larger house than they could afford? Possibly. It isn’t only about earning enough, it is about saving enough.

I would say that as physicians we should be defending how much we earn. We should defend ourselves in this system of checks and balances between physicians, insurance companies, govt/medicare/medicaid, and patients. However, in becoming angry about how screwed we are, we can’t forget how interested we are in the physiology and pathology behind our patients’ problems as well as how interesting each patient actually is. I had an ENT attending tell me during my 3rd year of medical school, “Every single patient has something interesting about them, you just have to find out what it is.” I believe in what he said. In working so many hours, and seeing patients so quickly we often times don’t get the opportunity to find out the interesting things about our patients. In addition to defending our salaries and job title in the medical field, we can’t forget to continue to discover the interesting characteristics about our patients that made us want to “help people” in the first place.

So yes we do need to prevent ourselves from getting screwed. But we also need to continue to do so with at least half of the idealism that initially attracted us to medicine.

When I applied to medical school, I had the opportunity to enter a family business in real estate and make a ton of money, or enter medicine with interests in going into primary care knowing that my friends who didn’t go to college might earn more money than me. I’m still glad I chose to enter medicine. Well, and the real estate market is in the dumps now.

Good luck with your struggles in medicine. Just don’t let the man get you down.