Sunday, December 6, 2009

A Doctor Email on Healthcare

Hugh Hewitt at www.Hughhewitt.com has been soliciting and publishing emails from M.D.s all across the country in order to gain their unique perspective on health care in America and the legislation being foisted on Americans by Congress to "fix" the health care "crisis."

As this email suggests, whatever else may be said about the pending legislation, it will by no means "fix" the problem of too few doctors serving too many patients. In fact, by subsidizing access to millions who otherwise wouldn't pay for private medical insurance while at the same time cutting doctor's reimbursements for services, the legislation will ensure that thousands of young doctors and would-be doctors will flee the medical profession and choose to apply their talents elsewhere, thus turning a problem into a disaster.

Believe it or not, altruism is not an adequate incentive for a talented young person to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and to defer career income for 8 to 10 years after college. It is the prospect of ultimately doing well financially while doing good medically that sustains the sacrifice in time, money and effort that all docs suffer.

Nothing wrong with that in a free society. Is there?

No comments:

Post a Comment