Since this thread is on it's way to chit chat. Let me just add that very few people understand this concept. Tax the income mobile, they move.
That NYT article looks like doctor's PR in response to this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14sun1.html Doctors are responsible for the skyrocketing cost of care, yet they always complain about their costs and struggles when government or insurance companies want to lower the costs. Is it a coincidence that we see them whining in the NYT while Obama is getting ready to reform the system ?
I know what he makes.... about $250K per year. That's the great thing about America. If you want to be a financial success, you might spend 12 years in school and training after HS and earn a professional degree. (Well, it WAS the great thing... not so great when the Obama government decides to confiscate your efforts to buy political favor from those who never made such an effort.)
There will always be people like QQQBall. There are very bitter towards doctors. I think it is likely envy. They are lacking a great deal of respect in their life and it makes them feel better to degrade others and their hard work. Remeber, about 10-20% of the work we do is completely for free. We do not get paid at all. The patient has no money, and we usually just count it as a loss (which is not tax deductable, Since it is a service). I wonder if QQQBall would do anything for free just to help a fellow human out. I would be willing to bet the answer is no considering the hostile attitude he is already displaying. He is likely a very selfish and petty person who would sell you down the river for a few nickles. Regards.
Which is it, guy and girls? The NYT wants one-payer, federal health care, or the NYT is sympathetic to wealthy physicians who are crying poverty? I've never seen such widely disparate motives attached to a news (not op-ed) piece by the Times. Anyways, the one point I'd like to make is that medical schools, far from having the task to instill as much practical and fundamental knowledge about diagnosing and effectively treating the human health condition, serve as gatekeeping agencies, helping to keep the number of doctors artificially lower than what the market demands at any given moment, which keeps physician income artificially elevated above that which true market forces would allow - whether you believe doctors are overpaid or underpaid. And the AMA is the ringleader of this quota process, ensuring they protect the wages of their existing members. I've seen nurses in action that know more than even doctors who are probably 5 years into practice. Our neighbor went to the doctor complaining of pain in her abdomen, and the doctor diagnosed her with a gall bladder infection - it was only when her husband insisted on a 2nd opinion that they found out she was pregnant. The first doctor had order a bunch of radiological imaging, too. Nice, huh?
I know for sure that good ICU nurse knows more about keeping people alive than 90% of doctors regardless of seniority.
90% of medicine, at least in a hospital, is bringing vitals back up to stable and keeping them there. If there's no risk of imminent death, and absent anything more straightforward than a football sized tumor on one's forward, and in the case of even a moderately complex condition on presentation, patients are punted from one incompetent physician to another in seeking an accurate diagnosis. There are competent physicians. If you find one, hang on to him like talentless agents cling to their B-list celeb clients.