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There's also this: "Many hospitals bar doctors and other staff members from wearing protective masks in public areas. Some have been disciplined for pushing back." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/health/hospitals-coronavi... How do we put a swift end to this nonsense? Surely the public will be overwhelmingly on the side of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers.
> How do we put a swift end to this nonsense? Unions.
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> How do we put a swift end to this nonsense? Unions.
How would that work? Doctors go out on strike?
Nice thing about unions, though, is with them it rarely reaches a point like that.
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I don't see a solution that puts a swift end to this. The power asymmetry between employers and workers is so vast that situations like these are inevitable. We can't continue to live in this fantasy where companies have so much power over workers and their futures. But changing this involves organizing labor, which is deeply stigmatized in the US.
Doctors are the strongest guild in USA. They have the legal power to enforce a chronic shortage of doctors. That's why why PAs were invented.
I’d actually argue that physicians haven’t yet fully grasped their power. Historically, many docs worked in independent clinics or small practice groups. That made them subject to antitrust law when teaming up to negotiate en masse against a large insurer, for example.
Today, with all of the consolidation over the past decade, many have become employees. This has made them less powerful in many ways... except, now they can unionize without any of those old antitrust concerns.
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Doctors are the strongest guild in USA. They have the legal power to enforce a chronic shortage of doctors. That's why why PAs were invented.
I think you're probably right about the guild part. The chronic shortage of doctors? Well, that's because they're perhaps the strongest guild. The AMA puts a cap on the supply of doctors (via # of residency slots they allow). The PAs were invented so that another class of workers could do the work of doctors without jeopardizing the doctors' pay or status.
This is factually untrue.[1]
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We have a unionist running for president but the electorate doesn't seem to want that at the moment. I think we're witnessing another symptom of growing inequality. Several billionaires such as Ray Dalio have rightly remarked that this is a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development in our society. What is most troubling to me is that it appears we would rather blame others instead of trying to solve the und…
> We have a unionist running for president but the electorate doesn’t seem to want that at the moment. I’d argue that Sanders’ lack of success in the polls is due more to voters’ perceived safety in choosing a moderate to beat Trump rather than disapproval of Sanders’ policies. Everyone has become a pundit and believes that the electorate will only tolerate a moderate while many of those same voters voice approval of…
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Doctors are the strongest guild in USA. They have the legal power to enforce a chronic shortage of doctors. That's why why PAs were invented.
Doctors don’t enforce shortages. No one is stopping new medical schools from being created, it’s just not a trivial thing to do. I’d actually argue that physicians haven’t yet fully grasped their power. Historically, many docs worked in independent clinics or small practice groups. That made them subject to antitrust law when teaming up to negotiate en masse against a large insurer, for example. Today, with all of th…
USA could do like they do in tech and import already educated people. In tech we welcome that, in medicine that process requires the immigrant doctors to take additional years of study since medical doctors in USA have a post grad degree for no good reason.
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How would that work? Doctors go out on strike?
In the case, the doctors all go out with the masks as one and treat firing one as firing all of them. Nice thing about unions, though, is with them it rarely reaches a point like that.
we need to start firing administrators who issue these orders.
Would be interesting to hear how would you propose to do so during on-going emergency?
when the medical professionals who are fighting in the front line trenches say we don't have enough PPE, react by providing the said PPE to said medical professionals.
when medical professionals say things are going to get worse exponentially, provide them tools to fight the contagion instead of proclaiming "it's a hoax" on the national TV.
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In the case, the doctors all go out with the masks as one and treat firing one as firing all of them. Nice thing about unions, though, is with them it rarely reaches a point like that.
And if it did in this case or the next? The docs go on strike? C'mon, that would be saying "don't call my bluff."