Have you ever seen the occupation reputation chart? You know, the list that shows car salesmen and lawyers at the bottom, and nuns and doctors at the top. Doctors are universally respected. Will you be disappointed to find out that they care about their income? Maybe you’ll be disturbed to know that for every $1 drop in hourly income for doctors, approximately 1.46% of the physician workforce retires within two years of the drop. The same 2001 Medical Care Research and Review article projects that an earning decline of $10 per patient-care-hour motivates 11,000 physicians to retire early. Before I totally taint your view of doctors, let me assure you that you should not lose heart. In fact, I would like to suggest that we do all can to boost the health workforce in
For too long, we have put doctors on a pedestal thinking they can purchase their food and shelter, and an occasional Mercedes, with altruism. I’ve even heard well meaning anti-poverty activists suggest that doctors are somehow greedy because they will not give away their services. Physicians pay an extraordinary educational price to be able to practice medicine. They attend college, have to attain almost perfect grades, and then attend medical school for four years or more. We don’t expect charity from our grocer, so I am not sure why we feel doctors owe us anything but the service we are paying for—with insurance or without.
This blog was not paid for by the Medical Association of Georgia.
4 comments:
Everyone has opinions -- there's nothing wrong with that. But in this forum we want to read your thoughts about news from the health workforce beat.
What is being published in the scientific journals? Any new studies about supply and demand? Distribution of resources? Trends in medical or nursing school applications? Are physicians in some specialties retiring faster than others? Are boomer geriatricians going to retire just as boomers need them most?
What's happening in state legislatures and in Washington (aside from campaigning)?
Bring us up to date on your beat, which is such a lively and important one.
My best friend is doing her E.R. residency out in LA.. The experience of studying medicine has changed her views of how doctors should be paid drastically.
Interesting perspective...I wish that professional respect was equivalent to annual salary (if this was the case, firemen, police officers and teachers would probably make a lot more; unfortunately some of the most important professions to our society pay the least)...also, if we paid all people according to educational sacrifice, I would expect to make much more as a future professor.
This is interesting. I am not surprised to think about the emphasis doctors place on money, but I guess I do tend to think of doctors as people who truly want to help. I really don't see how you can practice medicine and not care about people. We all want to make money, though, do we not?
Do doctors' salaries have anything to do with the lack of health services some areas must deal with?
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