What's Your Doctor Worth?

American Thinker ^ | January 25, 2007 | Linda Halderman, MD

[from occupied ga]

Yes - and in that case the people making "a lot of money" are the parasite lawyers...

Think John Edwards. But from what I see the single biggest hit on your money is paying for the people who don't pay. (The great American founding father, Thomas Jefferson's quote, "From each according to his ability, to ehach according to his need." Oh wait that was Karl Marx, not Thomas Jefferson)

[1rudeboy]

Someone needs to nail this to the door of Hillary's Senate office. Obama's too.

[from occupied ga]

The biggest cost is overhead.

Well if you look at the numbers nonpayment is 60% and overhead is 24% so nonpayment is the biggest theoretical problem, but you're right about the collected money the biggest cost is overhead which includes malpractice.

[DB]

Hey I was about to smack you for that "Jefferson" quote ;-)

[CharacterCounts]

Was she foed to take this patient? Was she a volunteer?

She cannot have it boh ways.

amone of those much hated (on this forum) lawyers. I volunteer to accept court appointed indigent cases. I was recent compensated $125.00 for a case which took about 12 hours of my time and rerquired 5 sepearte court hearings. Am I complaining? No - because I was a volunteer.

This whiny doc wants to have it both ways. She wants to accept indigents and have someone else pay her the going rate. That someone else is ultimately you and me the taxpayer.

[from occupied ga]

Doctors salaries at a major hospital I know about range from about %150k to about $300k. In private practice they run higher, but they have to pay their own malpractice insurance which as we know can run as high as $100,000 a year.

[DB]

ICU and ER are constantly busy.

They have no problem with keeping their workers busy.

The problem (at least a major part of the problem) is mandating that the hospital care for people that are not going to pay and then passing the costs on to those who do pay.

Unlike the Dr in this article trying to get paid for her time seeing government insured patients the hospital is required to care for these government insured patients and the government (taxpayer) doesn't pay the full cost of that care. So the next paying person who comes through the door pays for all of the above. That's wrong.

[Just another Joe]

This isn't insurance companies in general.
This is what the government pays the doctor for those people that are on government aid.

I would imagine, but don't know for sure, that a private insurance company might pay quite a bit more than this.

[durasell]

Doctors salaries at a major hospital I know about range from about %150k to about $300k.






Not in a major metropolitan area, I bet.

[ladyjane]

Depending on your location the cost of healthcare is greatly increased by the illegals.

Typical case: mother-in-law in Mexico gets sick. She comes up to USA supposedly on a vacation. She goes to the emergency room, is immediately admitted, she ends up on dialysis, and the hospital bills are enormous. We all pay her bills either through taxes or though higher insurance premiums.

Another medical cost: the illegals have brought in stuff we haven't seen much of in this country for years, e.g., drug resistant TB, tape worms, leprosy.

[freespirited]

She provides no data on compensation for surgery. It's a good bet that there is a reason.

[from occupied ga]

Not in a major metropolitan area, I bet.

You would lose your bet unless you consider Baltimore/Washington area not a major metropolitan area. Rural salaries are generally considerably higher to attract doctors to areas where the lifstyle may not be as interesting.

[DB]

Umm, they aren't "indigents". They are Medi-Cal patients.

What is simply going to happen is that more and more doctors are going to refuse to see Medi-Cal patients which are most older folks.

Maybe that's a good thing. But the state can't expect providers to provide at that rate - which is her point.

And last but not least, give her some credit. She did take care of the patient without proper compensation.

[from occupied ga]

I will say that the CEO of the particular hospital (who is an MD, but does not as far as I know actually practice medicine) gets $860k a year - in line with other big corproation CEOs

[DB]

That could well be true.

What if surgery wasn't needed?

[DB]

Oops... #53 was intended for you...

[ladyjane]

Hospital CEOs are a whole other story. They make a lot. Not as much as college football coaches or professional athletes, but a lot.

[durasell]

I know several GPs who are breaking the half mil mark with their practices in NY. Add on teaching and investments and they are considerably over the mark.

[KoRn]

"Health insurance must be outlawed, seriously."

That's only one of an unholy trinity that includes lawyers, insurance companies, and government. Those three entities are all contributing to the problem in their own equally destructive ways. I would almost say that they were the problem, but the root cause of all of the problems are the individuals who think someone else is responsible for paying their medical bills.

[from occupied ga]

I know several GPs who are breaking the half mil mark with their practices in NY

Private practice no doubt?