Is it worth to pursue a carrier in medicine nowadays? Lets analyze that. Average yearly salary of the family doctor after finishing medicine is about 80k. It goes up to 120k in the next couple of years of practicing medicine and to around 150-180k after 7 years in practice, and most likely stays there. No pension plans unless you contribute to your own, no health care benefits – you need to purchase your own which may be very expensive, and finally huge school loans to pay off. Medicine and especially a family medicine is the most demanding field. Average reimbursement rate for a doctors visit paid by the insurance companies including government run insurances like Amerigroup or Americhoice is around $35 per visit and with the health care bill that just passed and was signed into law those rates will most likely go down. Where is the incentive for our young people to encourage them to go into medicine? Malpractice insurance goes up every year and it will continue to go up. With increased exposure to more patients the possibility of law suit is becoming greater, and office overhead including medical equipment and office staff decreases doctor’s profits. On the top of that doctors need to fight with the insurance companies to get paid for patients that they already seen due to rapid changes in the medical coding and billing practices. Life of a doctor is not easy knowing that they may lose their medical license and life hood due to one law suit. Their mind does not rest and for 365 days every minute of day they can’t leave their job behind thinking about decisions they face every time they see a patient. Every time the phone rings the question arises: should I take this call? – knowing the liability that doctors face. What did this bill do to address this issues? Where is the TORT reform? This legislation by adding additional 30 mln people to doctors panel and by giving everybody a ”right” to health care exposed doctors to bigger liability and more potential law suits. This bill was created by the trial lawyers for the trial lawyers, and in conjunction with the electronic medical records will discourage students from going into medicine. We already have a shortage of doctors in this country and growing demand for family practitioners. We’ll see more and more foreign doctors coming into this country and less born and educated Americans who will want to pursue a carrier in medicine.
Here’s what needed to be done to insure the uninsured and fix health care problems:
1. Extend Medicaid coverage so people with higher income would qualify for it. 2. Eliminate defensive medicine practices by including TORT reform in the bill. 3. Implement fraud prevention in Medicare and Medicaid programs. 4. Open state borders for insurance companies to drive the cost of insurance down. 5. Get away with pre-existing conditions.
None of those points were addressed in that bill except pre-existing conditions. The bill that President Obama signed into law empowered the federal government to gain more control over U.S. citizens, their decision making when it comes to health care and finally their finances. I hope that this bill bill will be repealed in after the upcoming election and new one will be created to address the real problems in our health care.
The reality of becoming a doctor
Is it worth to pursue a carrier in medicine nowadays? Lets analyze that. Average yearly salary of the family doctor after finishing medicine is about 80k. It goes up to 120k in the next couple of years of practicing medicine and to around 150-180k after 7 years in practice, and most likely stays there. No pension plans unless you contribute to your own, no health care benefits – you need to purchase your own which may be very expensive, and finally huge school loans to pay off. Medicine and especially a family medicine is the most demanding field. Average reimbursement rate for a doctors visit paid by the insurance companies including government run insurances like Amerigroup or Americhoice is around $35 per visit and with the health care bill that just passed and was signed into law those rates will most likely go down. Where is the incentive for our young people to encourage them to go into medicine?
Malpractice insurance goes up every year and it will continue to go up. With increased exposure to more patients the possibility of law suit is becoming greater, and office overhead including medical equipment and office staff decreases doctor’s profits. On the top of that doctors need to fight with the insurance companies to get paid for patients that they already seen due to rapid changes in the medical coding and billing practices. Life of a doctor is not easy knowing that they may lose their medical license and life hood due to one law suit. Their mind does not rest and for 365 days every minute of day they can’t leave their job behind thinking about decisions they face every time they see a patient. Every time the phone rings the question arises: should I take this call? – knowing the liability that doctors face. What did this bill do to address this issues? Where is the TORT reform? This legislation by adding additional 30 mln people to doctors panel and by giving everybody a ”right” to health care exposed doctors to bigger liability and more potential law suits. This bill was created by the trial lawyers for the trial lawyers, and in conjunction with the electronic medical records will discourage students from going into medicine. We already have a shortage of doctors in this country and growing demand for family practitioners. We’ll see more and more foreign doctors coming into this country and less born and educated Americans who will want to pursue a carrier in medicine.
Here’s what needed to be done to insure the uninsured and fix health care problems:
1. Extend Medicaid coverage so people with higher income would qualify for it.
2. Eliminate defensive medicine practices by including TORT reform in the bill.
3. Implement fraud prevention in Medicare and Medicaid programs.
4. Open state borders for insurance companies to drive the cost of insurance down.
5. Get away with pre-existing conditions.
None of those points were addressed in that bill except pre-existing conditions. The bill that President Obama signed into law empowered the federal government to gain more control over U.S. citizens, their decision making when it comes to health care and finally their finances. I hope that this bill bill will be repealed in after the upcoming election and new one will be created to address the real problems in our health care.