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Doctors are very good at keeping tabs on earnings of others but have no limits on the estimates of their own value. We in turned are conditioned to respect doct

by slr555 11y ago

Doctors are very good at keeping tabs on earnings of others but have no limits on the estimates of their own value. We in turned are conditioned to respect doctors as the vessels which carry the whole of healthcare. Nothing could be further from the truth. Talk to a very large percentage of doctors outside the office and you find that money is there bottom line. They're all for tort reform so you can't recover a large settlement when they are negligent. They grouse endlessly about how much they have to pay for malpractice insurance. I recently saw a doctor get into a private chauffeured limousine with a vanity plate outside a major NY hospital. I don't know too many pharma execs that live that high on the hog. Did I mention the chauffeur was armed. I guess you can make people angry when you flaunt wealth like that. My own doctor lamented not making as much money as "those wallstreet guys" just before he forgot I was in the hospital for a week. Oops.

anonymous30 11y ago
Absolutely. US doctors have the highest income in the world. Even our supposedly underpaid GPs have higher salaries than specialists in almost every other country. And the public accepts it, even defends it! Yet our health outcomes aren't any better.
- marcoperaza 11y ago
  Health outcomes are determined by more factors than the quality of medical care. Obesity (and it's bed fellow diabetes), sedentary lifestyles, drinking & drugs, etc. Given current medical knowledge and technology, no medical system can undo the harm caused by those cultural factors. Doctors' advice is just that, advice that you are free to ignore. Even more specific metrics can be misleading. E.g. we know that cancer patients are more likely to be cured in the US than in Europe, but there's enough confounding factors to muddle any conclusions. It could be that earlier detection in the US leads to treatment for a cancer that would have gone into remission on its own and never been detected by doctors in another country. Or it could be that US cancer care is superior.

by slr555 11y ago

anonymous30 11y ago

Absolutely. US doctors have the highest income in the world. Even our supposedly underpaid GPs have higher salaries than specialists in almost every other country. And the public accepts it, even defends it! Yet our health outcomes aren't any better.

marcoperaza 11y ago
Health outcomes are determined by more factors than the quality of medical care. Obesity (and it's bed fellow diabetes), sedentary lifestyles, drinking & drugs, etc. Given current medical knowledge and technology, no medical system can undo the harm caused by those cultural factors. Doctors' advice is just that, advice that you are free to ignore. Even more specific metrics can be misleading. E.g. we know that cancer patients are more likely to be cured in the US than in Europe, but there's enough confounding factors to muddle any conclusions. It could be that earlier detection in the US leads to treatment for a cancer that would have gone into remission on its own and never been detected by doctors in another country. Or it could be that US cancer care is superior.