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Thread: How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession

  1. #1

    How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession

    By the end of this year, it’s estimated that 300 physicians will commit suicide. While depression amongst physicians is not new—a few years back, it was named the second-most suicidal occupation—the level of sheer unhappiness amongst physicians is on the rise.

    Simply put, being a doctor has become a miserable and humiliating undertaking. Indeed, many doctors feel that America has declared war on physicians—and both physicians and patients are the losers.

    Not surprisingly, many doctors want out. Medical students opt for high-paying specialties so they can retire as quickly as possible. Physician MBA programs—that promise doctors a way into management—are flourishing. The website known as the Drop-Out-Club—which hooks doctors up with jobs at hedge funds and venture capital firms—has a solid following. In fact, physicians are so bummed out that 9 out of 10 doctors would discourage anyone from entering the profession.

    It’s hard for anyone outside the profession to understand just how rotten the job has become—and what bad news that is for America’s health care system. Perhaps that’s why author Malcolm Gladwell recently implied that to fix the healthcare crisis, the public needs to understand what it’s like to be a physician. Imagine, for things to get better for patients, they need to empathize with physicians—that’s a tall order in our noxious and decidedly un-empathetic times.

    After all, the public sees ophthalmologists and radiologists making out like bandits and wonder why they should feel anything but scorn for such doctors—especially when Americans haven’t gotten a raise in decades. But being a primary care physician is not like being, say, a plastic surgeon—a profession that garners both respect and retirement savings. Given that primary care doctors do the work that no one else is willing to do, being a primary care physician is more like being a janitor—but without the social status or union protections.

    Unfortunately, things are only getting worse for most doctors, especially those who still accept health insurance. Just processing the insurance forms costs $58 for every patient encounter, according to Dr. Stephen Schimpff, an internist and former CEO of University of Maryland Medical Center who is writing a book about the crisis in primary care. To make ends meet, physicians have had to increase the number of patients they see. The end result is that the average face-to-face clinic visit lasts about 12 minutes.
    Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...rofession.html

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  3. #2
    Just more jobs Americans won't do.

    Out of around 30 Primary Care physicians I had to choose from at my HMO, there were only two who were "native-born" Americans.
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

  4. #3
    Wow. Quite coincidentally, I was in my doctor's office today for a (much overdue) checkup. He was lugging around a notebook computer, and apologized for not having all my files which, he said, were being transferred to electronic records along with everyone else's all due to a mandate of the ACA. He began a bit of a rant about Obamacare, which he quickly choked off.

    I just laughed and said he had my deepest sympathies and full agreement; I was 100% on his side.

    He went on to explain how bogged down things were becoming under Obamacare. I felt bad for the guy. He's still young - younger than I am, I think. But just talking to him, it was clear the whole business was wearing him down.

    What are we going to do when all the best doctors have quit?

  5. #4
    I have a physical next month, I think I'll take my pcp some cookies.
    My Doc is a nice guy but his office is always a madhouse, I can imagine that gets overwhelming. It also seems like a pretty thankless job.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by KCIndy View Post
    What are we going to do when all the best doctors have quit?
    Pay them in small unmarked bills in a nondescript brown paper bag while meeting in the back of a dark alley.

  7. #6
    There was a point not long ago when doctors interacted with their patients........And the patients paid them for their services.

    Now we've got government, lawyers and insurance companies all in the mix...

    Any one of those three is enough to $#@! up a healthy relationship but the Dr./ patient relationship is saddled with all three..

    Dr.'s aren't stupid.......Eventually they'll figure out who to kick out of their offices......

  8. #7
    I feel very fortunate to have a few really good doctors. Doctors that I can talk to openly and that I believe are really trying to help me.

  9. #8
    I do not understand why most are throwing their hands up in defeat...why not stand together and say, "ENOUGH, I am not going to comply?"
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by donnay View Post
    I do not understand why most are throwing their hands up in defeat...why not stand together and say, "ENOUGH, I am not going to comply?"
    So you want them to comply with non-compliance? /smartass

  12. #10
    This doctor wrote about it too. I don't know why we're not seeing more direct-pay and concierge practices open.

    Doctors really need to take classes in small business management and entrepreneurship.

    If this system is bad for patients, what does it mean for doctors? It means falling reimbursement rates and rising overhead costs for providers, onerous government mandates and regulations, and institutionalized, legalized larceny by Big Pharma, Big Insurance and Corporate Medicine.

    [...] A recent article from CNN, “Doctors Going Broke,” confirms the growing problem. http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/05/smal...roke/index.htm

    As income reductions are being imposed on private practice, costs are being driven up by exploding regulations. In addition, the plethora of new mandates and laws have increasingly criminalized every aspect of the practice of medicine and created vast new armies of armed bureaucrats whose sole aim is to impose civil and criminal penalties on any provider unlucky enough to be singled out for attention. The old Soviet dictum attributed to Lavrenti Beria (Stalin’s NKVD chief), “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime,” is in full force in Amerika.

    [...] Heaven help the poor provider who is targeted by the Medicare Police – or now, one supposes, by the new IRS Medical Special Branch. If targeted, his or her practice will be shut down without due process. His or her assets will be seized without due process (assuring the inability to even defend oneself). Finally, the unlucky guilty-until-proved-innocent physician will be permanently discredited (libeled) in his or her community with the ready help of the Government’s countless propaganda organs – press, radio, and TV – all before any day in court is seen.

    New restrictions, rules, and regulations on healthcare – on providers and patients alike – have imposed legal constraints with which full compliance is impossible. Medicare rules and regs alone fill tens of thousands of pages, and ignorance of any of them is no defense for the unlucky. The original HIPAA legislation has been amplified with many additions since its inception in 1996: FERPA, HITECH, ARRA (2009). Each additional act or regulation has further criminalized the practice of medicine.
    Based on the idea of natural rights, government secures those rights to the individual by strictly negative intervention, making justice costless and easy of access; and beyond that it does not go. The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
    --Albert J. Nock

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Lucille View Post
    This doctor wrote about it too. I don't know why we're not seeing more direct-pay and concierge practices open.

    Doctors really need to take classes in small business management and entrepreneurship.
    There must be too much inertia in working the insurance system. No matter how much overhead comes with it, they know the system and are comfortable with it.

    The customer base is probably small for cash customers today. Of course Doctors need to try it before giving up on the idea!
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    Just more jobs Americans won't do.

    Out of around 30 Primary Care physicians I had to choose from at my HMO, there were only two who were "native-born" Americans.
    I cant see why "native born" Americans wont do the job. It pays well, but I can understand some people, regardless of herritage, or place of origin, not wanting to deal with the bureaucratic BS.

    On the other hand, could it be possible that at least some of the docs youve met were shown favoritism by anti-discrimination laws? They might get scholarships for being a minority when qualified white kids are excluded? Is is possible Affirmative Action is contributing to the skews? Im sure it isnt the only reason, and some people simply do not want to do the job, but could all the Anti Discrimination efforts have some influence on Minority Favoritism?
    1776 > 1984

    The FAILURE of the United States Government to operate and maintain an
    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

    The Elimination of Privacy is the Architecture of Genocide

    Belief, Money, and Violence are the three ways all people are controlled

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    Our central bank is not privately owned.

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    Just more jobs Americans won't do.

    Out of around 30 Primary Care physicians I had to choose from at my HMO, there were only two who were "native-born" Americans.
    I cant see why "native born" Americans wont do the job. It pays well, but I can understand some people, regardless of herritage, or place of origin, not wanting to deal with the bureaucratic BS.

    On the other hand, could it be possible that at least some of the docs youve met were shown favoritism by anti-discrimination laws? They might get scholarships for being a minority when qualified white kids are excluded? Is is possible Affirmative Action is contributing to the skews? Im sure it isnt the only reason, and some people simply do not want to do the job, but could all the Anti Discrimination efforts have some influence on Minority Favoritism?
    1776 > 1984

    The FAILURE of the United States Government to operate and maintain an
    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

    The Elimination of Privacy is the Architecture of Genocide

    Belief, Money, and Violence are the three ways all people are controlled

    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Our central bank is not privately owned.

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by DamianTV View Post
    I cant see why "native born" Americans wont do the job. It pays well, but I can understand some people, regardless of herritage, or place of origin, not wanting to deal with the bureaucratic BS.
    I looked at most of their resumes. They were educated in other countries, so they probably didn't have a US scholarship.

    My guess is that it's exactly like the IT industry. They want to import foreign Doctors for all of the same reasons (less pay, easier to "control"). They probably use the same techniques (i.e. don't look for locals, say they can't find Americans, claim there is a shortage and that they need visas, etc).
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

  17. #15
    Do foreign doctors have domestic student loans? Hmm.

    * * *

    As for why physicians aren't going cash-only, it's not viable in most areas, and with the aging population you have Medicare insuring a large portion of patients. If you want to be able to take Medicare, you're going to also wind up taking Medicaid and any other State-related program. It's a nightmare. Now that nightmare has spread to commercial payers, in that if you want to take BCBS policies that pay well, you will also need to take BCBS that pays total crap.

    Or you can hope to be in an area where there's enough willing patients with cash to pay you with, who will cover both your salary and your loans, not to mention the cost of doing business (I don't even include malpractice insurance, because a growing number of doctors are doing without on that one).

  18. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by MelissaWV View Post
    Or you can hope to be in an area where there's enough willing patients with cash to pay you with, who will cover both your salary and your loans, not to mention the cost of doing business (I don't even include malpractice insurance, because a growing number of doctors are doing without on that one).
    It wouldn't be surprising if there were regulations and laws that also make it harder on the small Doctor's office. Malpractice insurance would just be one example of something that might be mandated, and be much cheaper for the big players.
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.



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