[grumpygresh]

The only way medical care will get better is if patients pay a greater percentage of the bill. The patient is the only person that can hold the physician accountable; you can’t really count on the insurance company or the government to be a patient advocate.
We are going in the wrong direction, and more government interference will only make things worse for doctors and patients. The author recommends more insurance/government payment schemes and worthless awards. When will people learn that governments cannot determine value? Value can only be decided by the consumer. How about giving the free market a try? We haven’t had free market medicine since the creation of 3rd party payor system after WW2.

[Sequoyah101]

I have no sympathy at all for them. I know one very very well. He lives a lifestyle all but a very few can only dream of. He is perpetually employed and can walk out of one job and get another almost any time anywhere he wants one. He doesn’t work the hours he wants all the time but he works as much or as little as he wants to. Mid 40s... most can only dream of such freedom.

Regulations? We all have them and there are far too many for all of us.

As for status and respect and pillars of the community... all are earned they don’t come with the diploma. From those who are capable much is expected.

As for how well they do. As individual contributors they can be exceptional. As part of a health care team they are usually prima donnas who don’t communicate at all. Without a knowledgeable thinking patient advocate the patient is likely as not to die of his treatment. They just don’t coordinate care.

This article is so much hand wringing and bed wetting.

It is a job. They need to deal with it. It is in fact a very good job. Get on with it our quit. There are three choices... Change it, Accept it or Quit it.

[cva66snipe]

Up into my early adult life the same doctor who delivered me in the late 1950's was my primary care physician into the early 1980's. He delivered babies, took out kids tonsils, adults appendix, treated geriatrics, did stints as Chief of Staff at the hospital, and ran his daily practice consisting of a nurse, PT nurse, & receptionist/book keeper. He was the one when my grandmother back in the early 1960's following a heart attack was presented a hospital bill while in her room in an oxygen tent in her last few months. He said here I'll handle that for you and he was pissed. Someone got a chewing out and he had the clout to do it. He passed about 5 years ago and fully retired about 15 years ago in his early 70's.

Today I have a primary care physician actually Internal Medicine Specialist. He has to belong to a large practice group to cover his overhead and make money. That large practice the billing dept is about as big as the medical end of it employee wise.

He's a good dedicated and compassionate doctor who treats the family. He still does his hospital rounds next to where his practice is. He does rounds at about 6:00am and is still seeing patients in his office well past 5:00pm.

I saw how gently as a person could do it explain to dad that his body was wore out from age and cancer and that his end of life was near. I've seen him called to the ER to see my wife and the genuine look of concern when he exited the exam room. She had a UTI which caused Pneumonia and CHF. Thank GOD that type of CHF is very reversible. Thank GOD for the doctors and Lab Techs.

I've seen the other side of the spectrum as well. By that I mean doctors who really should be elsewhere in another profession. They are the exception rather than the rule from what I've seen in doctors and I've interact with dozens of doctors the past 30 years dealing with my wife's needs.

There is no other profession I know of that demands as much education, time working while still studying, then internship, and almost life long demand of 60 hour weeks in most cases. I could not think of a more stressful occupation nor a more demanding one. Their decisions can mean life and or death. There are plenty of ambulance chasers just waiting for any trivial thing to happen to file a frivolous lawsuit.

I don't begrudge them their pay. They worked for it and deserve it. That said government needs to get out of their business and lessen the stress and pressures. Insurers aren't innocent on this issue either. They too place their pressures and demands upon doctors by placing themselves in the exam room second guessing many times even basic medical protocols. The HMO Act a product of one Ted Kennedy started us on this road.

[Blue Ink]

You got socialized medicine, docs, because you got greedy and started taking health insurance. That way you could charge more for the exact same procedures. More than the free market would pay. What on earth did you think would happen?

Sow, reap.

[spodefly]

First of all, there is no way this can be true because there is no way the government would pass a giant healthcare bill without taking into consideration the supply of labor to carry out that plan ............ /s

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When the social justice warriors start saying, “We have a right to healthcare”, doctors are the first ones to see themselves as cattle on the government farm ...

[TChad]

Very few American doctors entered medical school in order to have their life’s work become a perk of the socialist state.

[Kickass Conservative]

Just wait until they become Indentured Servants to the State. Talk about fun.

[Incorrigible]

Bump

[gattaca]

ping

[DH]

Whether or not a doctor believes it...he has become a defacto government employee.

Obama and the socialist system have “drafted” all doctors into government service whether they like it or not.

Welcome to the reality of Obamacare.