9 ms·

You are absolutely right about the middlemen/women. But don't forget to mention the doctors, nurses and PAs as well (more on doctors). They have skin in the gam

You are absolutely right about the middlemen/women. But don't forget to mention the doctors, nurses and PAs as well (more on doctors). They have skin in the game and most of the US doctors that I've talked to aren't that keen on single-payer system. The only excuse they have is that it'll flood the system with a lot more patients (I'm sure it can be solved the same way it is solved in Canada et al.) and that the quality of care will be reduced (can't see that rationale). About the long wait time - I waited from 11pm until 8:30am (discharge) in the morning in ER of Strong Memorial hospital one day for falling and bleeding from my nose (I thought I broke my nose, but luckily, I didn't). I should have answered my pain level was 10 instead of being truthful about it and responding 3. This is not to mention that I got charged $250 from deductibles despite having the insurance. My sister, who lives in Rochester, NY, is waiting until May 2020 to get an appointment for yearly physical checkup. There's a significant shortage of doctors in rural areas (Rochester isn't even that rural to be honest). And yet, AMA is happily restricting the supply of new doctors by putting up multiple hurdles including exam fees (not to mention the amount of money they charge for each USMLE exam is ridiculous) and requirement to go through 8 years of education when that could have been easily reduced to just 4 for any IM (internal medicine) physician.

slumdev 7y ago
> About the long wait time - I waited from 11pm until 8:30am (discharge) in the morning in ER of Strong Memorial hospital one day for falling and bleeding from my nose (I thought I broke my nose, but luckily, I didn't). This is how the system is supposed to work. Even if you had broken your nose, unless it's some gaping open fracture or the bleeding can't be controlled, it's probably not a higher priority than most of the cases they see. > My sister, who lives in Rochester, NY, is waiting until May 2020 to get an appointment for yearly physical checkup. There's a significant shortage of doctors in rural areas (Rochester isn't even that rural to be honest). And yet, AMA is happily restricting the supply of new doctors by putting up multiple hurdles including exam fees (not to mention the amount of money they charge for each USMLE exam is ridiculous) and requirement to go through 8 years of education when that could have been easily reduced to just 4 for any IM (internal medicine) physician. This is a complicated problem. Our current system incents people to become specialists. Why would I want to go to school for 8 years (taking on $200-300k in student loans if I'm lucky) and then do 1-3 years of 100-hour weeks making $50k to come out making less than a twentysomething software engineer?
- patentatt 7y ago
  This. He didn’t even break his nose, so it was ... a boo-boo? Yeah, you’re gonna wait in line for that. Source: family member who works in ER, trainee in triage.
nradov 7y ago
The AMA is hardly restricting the supply of new doctors. Exam fees are a tiny fraction of medical school tuition. The real supply bottleneck is in federal funding for additional residency slots. Every year students graduate from medical school but are unable to practice because they can't get matched to a residency program. The AMA is actively lobbying to fix that problem. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-fund-graduate-medical-education-address-physician-shortages https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-fun... There's nothing wrong with forcing you to wait a few hours in the ER for a minor problem. If your vital signs are stable then you can wait.
tapland 7y ago
> I should have answered my pain level was 10 instead of being truthful about it and responding 3. This is why we can't have nice things.

slumdev 7y ago

> About the long wait time - I waited from 11pm until 8:30am (discharge) in the morning in ER of Strong Memorial hospital one day for falling and bleeding from my nose (I thought I broke my nose, but luckily, I didn't). This is how the system is supposed to work. Even if you had broken your nose, unless it's some gaping open fracture or the bleeding can't be controlled, it's probably not a higher priority than most of the cases they see. > My sister, who lives in Rochester, NY, is waiting until May 2020 to get an appointment for yearly physical checkup. There's a significant shortage of doctors in rural areas (Rochester isn't even that rural to be honest). And yet, AMA is happily restricting the supply of new doctors by putting up multiple hurdles including exam fees (not to mention the amount of money they charge for each USMLE exam is ridiculous) and requirement to go through 8 years of education when that could have been easily reduced to just 4 for any IM (internal medicine) physician. This is a complicated problem. Our current system incents people to become specialists. Why would I want to go to school for 8 years (taking on $200-300k in student loans if I'm lucky) and then do 1-3 years of 100-hour weeks making $50k to come out making less than a twentysomething software engineer?

patentatt 7y ago
This. He didn’t even break his nose, so it was ... a boo-boo? Yeah, you’re gonna wait in line for that. Source: family member who works in ER, trainee in triage.

nradov 7y ago

The AMA is hardly restricting the supply of new doctors. Exam fees are a tiny fraction of medical school tuition. The real supply bottleneck is in federal funding for additional residency slots. Every year students graduate from medical school but are unable to practice because they can't get matched to a residency program. The AMA is actively lobbying to fix that problem. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-fund-graduate-medical-education-address-physician-shortages https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-fun... There's nothing wrong with forcing you to wait a few hours in the ER for a minor problem. If your vital signs are stable then you can wait.

tapland 7y ago

> I should have answered my pain level was 10 instead of being truthful about it and responding 3. This is why we can't have nice things.