Yeah, you have no idea what you're talking about. Just because you can reason out that you believe physicians have a sinister motive doesn't make it true. Antibiotics are over prescribed as is, the damage from people taking whichever antibiotic they want (which is also dangerous) would be immense. You don't have a clue as to which medications are prescribed when and why. No, again, you're one of the geniuses who believes doctors are out to getcha! Gonna keep you coming back to the office, that's the plan! I've invested in a company, now I know how healthcare works! I'm sure that they took you to the investors meeting in a hollowed out volcano and showed you how they plan on keeping people sick for the sake of profits.
The laughable part of it is that most physicians don't really understand how much they are being subsidized by the public. They don't understand the constraints and how its adversely affecting our nation. The comments here are completely reflective of that. This is what happens when you don't have a competitive system and instead have a quasi-regulated system of government, special interests and lobbying as opposed to allowing people to choose with their dollars.
The problem is that healthcare is one of the only places where a technological advancement actually increases the cost instead of decreasing. US healthcare system flawed for sure, but there isnt some wide secret conspiracy lol
Antibiotics are not something you should be able to get over the counter Your whole argument is hinged on the fact that you "Think" these medications should be available for everyone. Out of all the proffessions out there doctors go through the most rigorous training out of anyone. That is to ensure the safety of the patient. First off, as many have pointed out here, most patients LACK the adequate knowledge for self treatment. So you think you're sick and you need antibiotics? How do you know that? Through rigorous testing doctors determine what the patient has. How can the patient possibly know if they have a viral infection--in which case antibiotic treatment is completely useless a bacterial infection-where antibiotics are effective, but which specific one is effective because there are many resistant organisms out there. The other drawback with antiobiotic treatment is that if it were available so easily, to the point you could get it OTC, they would be USELESS very quickly. Pathogens develop resistance quickly, and it is correlated with the amount of time the antibiotic has been out and been prescribed. Second, they antibiotics tax your liver and can have bad consequences on your gastric lining. How does a patient know that their liver is working optimally and that they can tolerate the med? Not knowing could prove toxic. Anyone of these scenarios could lead to a patient suing the doctor, so your argument is not sound. Birth control is a bit different, it causes your body to release progesterone at all times I think? but stuff can still go wrong. There are health care proffessionals that spend close to 10-12 years after college to specialize in this stuff which is why you have to go through them. I know I only added two examples, but these are also some of the most benign. Unless you have the adequate knowledge about this information you can't possibly even begin to think that the other medications can be available to the public without a Doctor. And the reason the ratio of doctor to patient is so low is because it drives super high competition and leads to only the most qualified applicants being admitted. I am actually going to be attending med school next year so I understand this process.
Even with doctors prescribing antibiotics, we are having to prepare for a day when they are not as effective due to overuse. If you made purchasing antibiotics as easy as buying aspirin, this curve would be greatly accelerated. It becomes a public health issue and preventing that is absolutely a proper role for government.
definitely lots of side effects with birth control, not to mention if you make something that you have to take EVERYDAY like BC as an OTC, thats going to require some sort of mandatory counseling on top of OTC BCs or else there will be consequences for missed doses (pregnancies). So basically thats the same **** as getting a prescription and getting it filled normally at the pharmacy.
All great reasons one should consult a doctor. Not reasons one should be forced to. Hadn't heard a rationing argument like this for medicine before. Who determines the threshold that says I'm worthy of antibiotics? Nah, licensing creates barriers to entry designed to keep out competition and artificially limit the supply of labor, thus artificially raising doctor salaries. No different than barbers or cab drivers that do the same thing, only doctors get to sanctimoniously tell us it's for our own safety.
Do you even realize how childish and idiotic your posts are? All you say is you have no idea and you don't have a clue over and over and then make generalities about sinister motives when I discuss incentivization. You really need to learn to develop an argument otherwise you just sound like a fool.
Says the guy who thinks all doctors are out to get him because he invested in some kind of health care company? Riiiight. YOU are the one making generalities about something you don't understand. I gave you several reasons why your post was wrong, you just don't have anything to respond to them with.
In the last 100 years the population of the US has grown around 300% versus the number of medical schools has fallen. This is directly contrary to business schools, law schools and other professional schools leading to around 60% denial rates for medical school and continually changing formats for foreign medical graduates and state to state transfers for physicians. The Council on Medical Educations and Hospitals of the AMA is the group that approves new Medical schools. They've created a cartel of sorts not allowing new Medical Schools to be commissioned which is why physician salaries in the US are double of what they are in most 1st world nations. Does this really make sense? In places like Canada, Japan, Germany etc, physicians make half as much with equivalent education mainly due to the Cartel type behavior reducing supply which artificially inflates salaries. I'm not saying physicians are sinister or something ridiculous like that but that they are part of a system which is unfairly inflating the cost of healthcare to the American people by affecting supply constraints. QDoubleA or anyone care to debate any of these actual points?
I haven't been to a physician in years and have never said anyone was out to get me? Where are you getting this nonsense. Do you realize how empty and lack of any data or information your posts are? Read my last post about artificial supply constraints of physicians due to AMA's cartel type behavior and the facts about reduced acceptance rates and lack of physicians culminating in inflated prices for consumers and governmental debt to subsidize current physician salaries. Please respond with actual information and not your usual: "Suuureeee the doctors are evil and out to get you ....You are a genius and don't know what youre talking about..." or some other random point with no merit or bearing on the discussion.
http://www.mckinsey.com/Search.aspx?q=physician 58 billion This is a study by McKinsey that discusses how US Physician salaries account for an addition around $60 billion in excess healthcare costs relative to most OECD nations. That is around $200 a year per American to subsidize the excess physician salaires relative to comparable nations.
In the 1980's and 1990's only one new Medical School was accepted by the AMA. These facts are undeniable. Chirp..Chirp...Chirp. I would think the liberals would be jumping on this as here you have a artificial contraints by the government and groups inflating people's salaries at the expense of all Americans.
YAWWWWWWWWWWN, thanks for showing me your talking points manual brah. Where it lists out the top 5 reasons fueling the rising costs of health care...physicians salaries are not among them. Where you got your big point here (you just looked at the headline of one of the charts, then divided the number you saw by the population) simply lists what the average salaries are for generalist and specialists, and points out that some are making what is "above expected". Hard hitting stuff right there. So let's just completely cut physician salaries and save 60 billion, I like it.
You are just ignoring basic science and medical prudence. Nobody in the scientific community (even pharmaceutical companies) are denying that antibiotics are become less effective due to resistance. Who decides if you worthy of antibiotics? Probably the doctor that determines you actually have a bacterial infection as opposed to a virus for which antibiotics would be useless. Licensing of physicians provides a minimum standard of knowledge one must demonstrate they possess before practicing medicine for the public. It also provides a mechanism to keep bad doctors from practicing once they have proven themselves to be a danger to the public. These concepts have never been particularly controversial. As an attorney, I am glad we have licensing to ensure that bad attorneys are not out there exploiting the public.
Its like talking to a moron. $60 billion is the differential over the average of Physician Salaries in other comparable nations. I believe this is due to the competition eroding practices of AMA and doctor's associations. Isn't it ridiculous in a time of such high medical prices, only one new medical school was built in 20 years??? Increase in natural supply of physicians will bring salaries more in-line with other nations and will bring down the price and increase the quality of health care in this country which is what I am for. Hopefully Obama will break this cartel.
As an attorney how does it strike you that there is an attorney for every 300 Americans, yet a doctor for every 1200 Americans? That there are less Medical Schools than there were 100 years ago? Versus 50% more law schools in the last 50 years. That one medical school was built in 20 (1980's and 1990's) years because AMA won't allow new schools? Doesn't this seem odd and restrictive from a group that focused on saying there will be a glut of physicians for years and years and now we have a significant shortage which is a large component of high physician salaries and lack of availibility of appointments for certain specialties (Dermatology example) which is inflating our nations cost of healthcare?
You'd be surprised. My former father in law is a doctor. A lot of doctors aren't exactly getting rich. With their student loan payments and $13,000 a month for med mal insurance and hiring additional office staff just to do the insurance and Medicare coding...their costs eat up a lot of what they bring in in insurance reimbursements. Of course you have large practices and docs like James Andrews who skew the average, but your small practice docs have started to struggle in recent years. I have seen many in the last few years in my practice. I am a bankruptcy attorney.
