This is in response to a column by Christopher Flavelle published Dec. 17 with a headline of "Cut medical care costs by paying doctors less." Flavelle alleges that doctors are overpaid and that drives up the cost of health care.
Let's look at the issue from a different perspective.
Movie stars and professional athletes make millions of dollars a year. Fans think nothing of paying $15 or $20 to watch a single movie, or spend hundreds of dollars for seats at certain sporting events.
Imagine this scenario: You are at the Super Bowl and suddenly fall over with a heart attack. A doctor who was sitting nearby rushes to your side. A player on the field, seeing the commotion, runs over to assist. As you lay there on the ground, near death, which of the two men is more valuable to you? The football player with a $10 million contract or the doctor who earned a measly $200,000 last year?
I think that doctors and others in the medical profession deserve what they earn.
John Nickerson, Poland
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Well said John...and your example is spot on...
If you want to be a doctor in America you will endure....
- High medical school tuition costs...with, in some cases high interest rates. If you can even get a scarce seat at an accredited medical school.
- The cost of establishing a practice, managing, hiring and firing...dealing with staff that may decide to divert medication and put your license at stake....
- Astronomical and ever increasing malpractice insurance costs....
- Those who think a doctor's innocent error is a Megabucks payoff....
- Patients that walk away from their medical bills...
....and...if you make a mistake on a car, it won't run. If you make a mistake on a patient; they die and you carry that for the rest of your life. Only to have your decisions second guessed in a court of law....and on and on...
Walk a mile in their shoes before you complain about their compensation. They deserve every penny! God bless them all. There is more than a doctor's salary that keep the costs of medicine high in America. These challenges can be fixed, but too many people have a financial interest in keeping the status quo. Why do you think there are so many lobbyists out there in the medical field.
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The football player must be useless if he only made 10 million over the life of his contract, and yes the doctor is the one I would want there.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Yet someone disagrees.
Yet someone disagrees. Remember that you get what you pay for. You pay nothing for a doctor, then don't cry when you need a doctor, and you cannot find one.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.The parrot thinks maybe the
The parrot thinks maybe the football player disagreed.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Well you know what recent
Well you know what recent studies say about football players and mental illness.
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