Insurance and Healthcare

[bejazd]

[quote=Kevin;1593973]What part in the cost of health care does the scarcity of M.D.'s play?

The scarcity of MDs who want to work for minimal pay under crappy working conditions? A big part. Does the top med student out of our best medical school want to spend her career working in a clinic where they shuffle through patients every five minutes? I don't think so. We want our healthcare providers to be the best educated, best trained, most experienced professionals with access to all the best equipment, tests, and medications. We expect premium care from our health care providers, and we're going to have to pay them well and provide them with autonomy if we want a premium healthcare system.

[Kevin]

The scarcity of MDs who want to work for minimal pay under crappy working conditions? A big part. Does the top med student out of our best medical school want to spend her career working in a clinic where they shuffle through patients every five minutes?

That's just the thing -- to get into pretty much any med school, you need excellent grades and a pretty good MCAT score. If you were a mediocre student who scored well on the MCAT? You *might* get into DO school.

The fierce competition for a limited amount of admissions slots should (and this is not based on fact, observation, or anything but conjecture) breed the sort of M.D. who will expect to have an elite job with elite compensation whether they graduate from John Hopkins or anywhere else. Can anyone name a med school which has 'easy' entrance requirements or one which will admit students on a probationary basis?

I don't think so. We want our healthcare providers to be the best educated, best trained, most experienced professionals with access to all the best equipment, tests, and medications.

Why should medicine have to have only the "best"? How determinative are undergraduate grades and MCAT scores as to how good someone will perform in a family practice environment? We don't need every single person in the profession to be elite.

We expect premium care from our health care providers, and we're going to have to pay them well and provide them with autonomy if we want a premium healthcare system.

Sometimes, mediocre will suffice.

[bejazd]

I think we've got plenty of mediocre and flat out terrible practictioners out there. I don't think I want anyone who is mediocre diagnosing my child or prescribing medications, performing surgery etc. But I'm totally okay with a PA or a nurse under the direct supervision of an MD performing many of the routine tasks MDs do during regular office visits.

But...if I take my kid to the dermatologist, and he never sees the MD, is it right for the MDs office to charge me the same fee for an office visit as if he'd seen the MD? Even though the PA makes far less money?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by bejazd

I think we've got plenty of mediocre and flat out terrible practictioners out there.

Which just goes to show you that the connection between academic performance in undergraduate college and performance in the medical field is very tenuous.

Really, other than M.D's being able to charge outrageous rates, who would be harmed by an influx of highly trained individuals into the profession?

Look at the law profession -- the wide open doors of law schools nationwide has made a lawyer something that you don't have to be wealthy to be able to afford.

That's good, right?