6 ms·

Free education for doctors and more of them besides the arbitrarily limited 11,000 or so a year medical school seats mandated by the AMA would do a lot for incr

by fnid2 17y ago

Free education for doctors and more of them besides the arbitrarily limited 11,000 or so a year medical school seats mandated by the AMA would do a lot for increasing the supply of doctors and reducing costs. If more doctors could open practices, there'd be more choice for consumers. I mean really, why do we even let the AMA -- doctors themselves -- artificially limit the supply of doctors? Of course they are going to keep the numbers low. 11,000 (the last number I found) new doctors every year is simply NOT enough. It may be a little bit higher, but last I researched, for years it was 10,000 and only after a lot of controversy did they increase it to 11,000. The system is designed to force doctors into debt so they have to be money focused and charge a lot and keep rates high for all the other doctors. The doctors, many of whom are my long time friends, are not happy with the system. They want more freedom. They feel like slaves to debt. One good friend left grad school with over $250,000 in debt! It takes a long time to pay that off. She can't take on more debt to open a private practice, nor would she have the experience really -- she's forced into the big hospital system that she knows is flawed, but she's powerless to change it because the huge medical institutions call the shots, not the doctors. We think doctors are invincible and make tons of money, but if they lose their jobs -- it's a horrible experience, because it'll be very difficult for them to find another job -- doctors talk and bankruptcy doesn't clear student loan debt, so even that isn't an option. Add to that, the fact that individuals aren't even allowed to care for their own medical well being and you have a system that is way unfairly balanced toward doctors and away from patients. Not even the doctors really, the hospitals. Why, in the "leader of the free world" are individuals not free to care for themselves? Prescribe their own medications? Order their own labs and CAT scans and the like? Why do we give the AMA so much power? Why don't patients have any over their own lives? I suppose patients do have some power -- over the doctors. There are doctors out there who send patients with viruses out with antibiotics because the patient wants something. They prescribe drugs from tv commercials because the patient wants something. Why do we let them do this? There should be laws against prescribing antibiotics for people who don't have bacterial infections. I know that and I'm not a doctor, but doctors still do it. There's really something wrong with our system. It's completely irrational. There's simply too much money in it and people go crazy.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
bobbin 17y ago
> There's really something wrong with our system. It's completely irrational. Not really. If you increase the requirements for entering a profession and limit the supply then you can increase you earning potential by a lot. That trick is highly rational and it works great, just not for you. Because it's not meant to work for you. Monopolies are not put in place for your benefit. > There's simply too much money in it and people go crazy. I think the violent regulation is more of a problem than that.
siculars 17y ago
>Why, in the "leader of the free world" are individuals not free to care for themselves? Prescribe their own medications? Order their own labs and CAT scans and the like? Uh... Dude, I would never prescribe my own medication. Unless you yourself are a pharmacist or physician it would be insane. Best case you get better (long shot), more likely placebo/neutral, worst case suicide. The best you yourself can do regarding self prescribed meds is whatever you can get over the counter at CVS. Also, according to my MD brother, half the reason we are in the predicament we are in is what is known as "defensive medicine" which he describes as performing unnecessary tests, "CT scans and the like", on the 1% chance that it might be helpful - specifically to curtail any potential malpractice. Face it, there is a reason people can not self prescribe, self order tests or conduct their own operations. Although you would like to blame the AMA (and I do fault them for the lackluster MD minting volume), by and large non healthcare professionals don't know what the hell they are doing/talking about.
- ilkhd2 17y ago
  By the way, OTC medicines are neither best or safest ones, they just have become OTC for certain political reasons. Just the whole business of prescribing everything other than Benadryl or Tylenol, allows doctors to make huuge profits, by forcing people to visit doctor to extend prescription.
- fnid2 17y ago
  There are many cases where individuals are totally capable of caring for themselves. For example, diabetes patients test their own blood. If they need more insulin, why does a doctor have to prescribe it? They know they need it and will always need it. Same is true for synthetic thyroid hormone and other endocrine issues. Birth control pills are another example. There are lots of conditions where it is easy for the individual to maintain their own medications. If you would never prescribe your own medications, that's fine, you can continue to go see a doctor. For those of us who are educated, inclined, and motivated enough to care for our own bodies, we should have the right to do so. I have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, except that I am required, by law, to go to someone else to make sure I have the life part. I can build my own house too. I can change my own oil and fix my plumbing, but that doesn't mean everyone has to do those things. They can still buy existing homes, take their car to the shop, or call a plumber. Imagine if the law required you to call a plumber or take your car to the dealer to have it serviced. It's my body and my life. I accept the responsibility for it and for knowing how much of which medications I need to take and when. Doctors know a lot, but all doctors don't know everything about every medical condition. With chronic illnesses, sometimes the patient actually knows more than the doctor. Have you ever watched that show on TV about medical conditions people have for years and years? They go see doctor after doctor and they never get a diagnosis and they have problem after compounding problem. Until one day, they go to the internet and do some research and figure out what they have, print out the papers, go to a new doctor and show them what they have and then, finally they get the treatments they need. I argue, that person should just be able to order the treatments they need without having to go to a doctor at all. Forcing people to go to a doctor, or multiple doctors, who don't know what is going on and who don't care enough to research the condition can make people sicker or at least not better.

by fnid2 17y ago

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

bobbin 17y ago

> There's really something wrong with our system. It's completely irrational. Not really. If you increase the requirements for entering a profession and limit the supply then you can increase you earning potential by a lot. That trick is highly rational and it works great, just not for you. Because it's not meant to work for you. Monopolies are not put in place for your benefit. > There's simply too much money in it and people go crazy. I think the violent regulation is more of a problem than that.

siculars 17y ago

>Why, in the "leader of the free world" are individuals not free to care for themselves? Prescribe their own medications? Order their own labs and CAT scans and the like? Uh... Dude, I would never prescribe my own medication. Unless you yourself are a pharmacist or physician it would be insane. Best case you get better (long shot), more likely placebo/neutral, worst case suicide. The best you yourself can do regarding self prescribed meds is whatever you can get over the counter at CVS. Also, according to my MD brother, half the reason we are in the predicament we are in is what is known as "defensive medicine" which he describes as performing unnecessary tests, "CT scans and the like", on the 1% chance that it might be helpful - specifically to curtail any potential malpractice. Face it, there is a reason people can not self prescribe, self order tests or conduct their own operations. Although you would like to blame the AMA (and I do fault them for the lackluster MD minting volume), by and large non healthcare professionals don't know what the hell they are doing/talking about.

ilkhd2 17y ago
By the way, OTC medicines are neither best or safest ones, they just have become OTC for certain political reasons. Just the whole business of prescribing everything other than Benadryl or Tylenol, allows doctors to make huuge profits, by forcing people to visit doctor to extend prescription.
fnid2 17y ago
There are many cases where individuals are totally capable of caring for themselves. For example, diabetes patients test their own blood. If they need more insulin, why does a doctor have to prescribe it? They know they need it and will always need it. Same is true for synthetic thyroid hormone and other endocrine issues. Birth control pills are another example. There are lots of conditions where it is easy for the individual to maintain their own medications. If you would never prescribe your own medications, that's fine, you can continue to go see a doctor. For those of us who are educated, inclined, and motivated enough to care for our own bodies, we should have the right to do so. I have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, except that I am required, by law, to go to someone else to make sure I have the life part. I can build my own house too. I can change my own oil and fix my plumbing, but that doesn't mean everyone has to do those things. They can still buy existing homes, take their car to the shop, or call a plumber. Imagine if the law required you to call a plumber or take your car to the dealer to have it serviced. It's my body and my life. I accept the responsibility for it and for knowing how much of which medications I need to take and when. Doctors know a lot, but all doctors don't know everything about every medical condition. With chronic illnesses, sometimes the patient actually knows more than the doctor. Have you ever watched that show on TV about medical conditions people have for years and years? They go see doctor after doctor and they never get a diagnosis and they have problem after compounding problem. Until one day, they go to the internet and do some research and figure out what they have, print out the papers, go to a new doctor and show them what they have and then, finally they get the treatments they need. I argue, that person should just be able to order the treatments they need without having to go to a doctor at all. Forcing people to go to a doctor, or multiple doctors, who don't know what is going on and who don't care enough to research the condition can make people sicker or at least not better.