nurses "think" they know a lot, but i'd make sure it's a real doctor before i just trusted some blank white smock- at least if it was me. maybe these superstar nurses are good enough for your care, you can have 'em
Some of these comments including this one show just how completely clueless some people are about the practice of Medicine. it is pointless to even try to reason with the likes of you since your level of ignorance on this subject is so profound. You are beyond hope.
Medicine in France is top notch. I live in Switzerland and would rather go there than to a Swiss doctor who is like a US doctor but worse, very expensive (by the minute rate!!) greedy , unavailable, and without any serious liability in case things go wrong and then on top of that subsidized by the state (mandatory socialized health insurance ).
If I had said that traders on average earn much more than doctors then yes that would be nonsense. The variance of traders' income is enormous compared to medical salaries, and the distribution is obviously skewed by a tiny number of massive earners at the top. That's why there definitely exists some small e such that E(traders' income in top e%) >> E(doctors' income in top e%). The key point is that trading is a profession with unlimited upside potential and medicine essentially has an employee type payoff.
Something is wrong when doctors own turbo charged top of the line airplanes ! IMO 80% of doctors should be defacto govt employees, The other 20% who see this as a business... well they can go work for the very wealthy who have special needs but everybody could afford the same basic level of care. nationalized healthcare is the way to go. Europe has the better healthcare system, and it's socialized. Of course taxes will go through the roof. It's a trade off. And yes you can "do well on Medicare". I know someone on Medicare. I can tell you this person is a true cash cow for the doctors. They have made her go through every possible test , and had her try all kind of medications that make her even sicker. This going on for years for conditions that are not life threatening and that aren't seriously impacting the quality of life in the short and medium term. The reason Medicare is going bankrupt is because doctors are milking the system all they can. It's outrageous, you wouldn't believe what is going on.
The core problem is that practicing medicine is no longer a calling; it's a business. The same thing happened to the practice of law decades ago. Some were happy with making a decent living while doing what they loved, while the majority wanted an all out profit machine, at the expense of all else. There's a rheumatologist near me that had an office manager embezzle 2.6 million over a 22 month period, before he found out, and the police were contacted. How much money does someone have to be making before they notice an average of $120,000 a month missing? And most of the money she skimmed was Medicare reimbursements.
Mastercharger, I have a buddy who as a doctor retired in early 40's. He worked for a Biotech & cashed out. He works PT doing shifts at a major ER to stay "sharp", but he is a professional trader. He is a good dude, but don't get him started on the medical industry . Pretty much as you say, except that he is very, very critical of most doctors & hospitals in general, bemoans overall quality of care & high costs, etc.
In France, despite what you may have heard, health care is *not* socialized per se. Doctors are in no way gov't employees and there is a market-based system. Doctors having top of the line turboprops -- wow if he's for real that's just insane. And now he's whining! He even said he started out idealistically wanting to help people but soon he was corrupted by the money! And he claims more doctors will bring lower quality yet he can't even spell! Illness was never so profitable! Again makes me think there needs to be free and massively increased enrollment in medical school.
Now doctors are viewing themselves as victims. Anyone who criticizes runaway health care costs is labeled a "doctor hater". I guess this is like being a Holocaust denier.
Interesting post. Well, I'm a doctor, practiced for nine years, and can't say that I much enjoyed much of it. I loved shooting the shit with patients and helping them, but that's only about 10% of the job. Basically I worked my ass off and had no life. I'm employed in the pharmaceutical industry now, and I trade on the side. Now I have more friends, hobbies, volunteer activities, time, and plenty of sleep every night. I have not seen a patient in nine years, and I know from my friends that much in medicine has changed since then. But I feel compelled to respond to the few who have posted here with medical aspirations. Obviously I can't advise anyone else; each must find their own way. But I spent a lot of time trying to see why I did not like medicine. It is very intellectually interesting and the business of truly helping people is gratifying. The wife of another doctor finally helped me see the reason for my dissatisfaction. I had referred numerous patients to her husband, a general surgeon who was talented, personable, thoughtful, and overall, the kind of doc I would go to or send a family member to. She told me one time that her husband would probably never retire because he could not give up medicine. Why? "It's a noble addiction," she said. Truer words were never spoken. I began to mull that over, going over in my mind all the docs I know. I saw that to a person, all the docs who love what they are doing are essentially addicted to being needed. And all those, like me, who are less than thrilled with their lives, do not have this personality characteristic. I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing to be this way--it just is. To determine whether medicine is right for you, you must look deep into your soul and try to see who you really are (not who you think you should be or who anyone else thinks you should be) and ask yourself whether being needed is important enough to you to work 90-hour weeks, spend holidays in the hospital, stay up all night and work the entire next day, listen to guff from patients and hospital administrators, etc. Yes, you get to save people's lives, make an enormous difference, get thousands of nice cards and compliments from appreciative patients, and all that. But it has to be worth what you give up. For me, it wasn't, and so I'm much happier now. I still get to continue to learn about medicine and to help sick people, albeit indirectly, but without all the negative stuff. As for the money part, yes, there are people who are in medicine for the money, who are trying to develop huge businesses, sell numerous services, etc. And that is all fine as long as they are also responsible and excellent physicians. But beyond a certain point, lots of money does not make people happy. I have seen studies about this, and they make sense to me. Beyond a certain point, once you can pay all your bills and buy the stuff you want, more money does not really add very much to one's life--I think the economists call it diminishing returns. I welcome your questions and comments.