361–370 of 521 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it comes down to, if you read the history of the American Medical Association, that some doctors simply didn’t like a free market pushing down prices for their services.
then again, who does
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the U.S., sure. But in the UK status of a doctor is akin to that of a schoolteacher. Totally not a highly sought-after, profitable career like it is in the U.S.
Doctors are paid a lot more than schoolteachers in the UK and in my experience are respected because of their profession. I think you're totally incorrect.
Prestige is, of course, not a function of income alone. Plenty of software developers get paid at least as much as respected professors or top military brass. That doesn't mean they have equivalent prestige.
I see the same thing in tech. Engineers used to be empowered and productively making things that empowered everyone, and now they're disempowered, broken to the saddle of whatever the tech oligarchs are fancying today.
One of my friends I grew up with was “that kid;” smartest in the community, funny, played a mean guitar. Everyone loved him. Top of class. Harvard. Harvard med. Top placement for residency. Something happened during that time and he killed himself. It was absolutely unexpected from all of his friends. Shocking to say the least. Apparently it turned out to be stress from work, his hours, his fear of failing. Who will…
I am a working physician (50+) that is currently in training to become an IT professional, preferably working with development of new patient records systems. Being a physician is just not very intellectually challenging, more emotionally challenging, programming is in my mind a real challenge. Any others with experience of changing fields?
> preferably working with development of new patient records systems. That field is quite a mess. There's a oligopoly of few large vendors with low quality products but high quality politics and sales. Although as a working physicians you're probably familiar at least with the results. Edit: Further discussion, including EHR system developers, here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39186252 Having been on the use…
The business models of EHR's I'm not that familiar with, I will read the thread you provided, thanks! It sounds like you have experience working with EHR development?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don’t be obtuse. You’re comparing garden gnomes with healthcare.
I mentioned garden gnomes as an example of how supply side economics and “scarcity drives demand” doesn’t work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure that's a good enough explanation. There's minimal if any impact from a given doctor on country wide policies, especially the ones funded by state. Junior doctors in the UK couldn't push basic improvements to both their working conditions and pay. That doesn't seem to match the idea that they can meaningfully influence the doctors intake numbers.
I don’t know about other countries but that’s absolutely the case for the US. The culprit is the AMA. > In the 20th century, the AMA has frequently lobbied to restrict the supply of physicians, contributing to a doctor shortage in the United States.[10][11][12] The organization has also lobbied against allowing physician assistants and other health care providers to perform basic forms of health care. The organizatio…
The doctors are simply wrong; the state is correct from a pernicious point of view.
Because the state is responsible for buying so much of the total supply of medical care, they generally view things from the perspective of "how much are we spending on the category 'medical care'?", rather than the perspective of how much any given treatment costs.
Increasing the number of doctors lowers the cost of all treatments and is unambiguously good.
However, it does raise the total amount of medical spending, which, in the eyes of the state, is bad.
I have to yet to meet one person who says American Healthcare is wonderful, fairly priced and efficient.
It seems private Equity and mergers are slowly juicing out the system - the doctors, patients, nurses.
Its a sad state of world that we don’t allow pilots to overwork because our lives depend on it, but we allow doctors to overwork and don’t count patients dying due to them being overworked.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it comes down to, if you read the history of the American Medical Association, that some doctors simply didn’t like a free market pushing down prices for their services.
Yeah, but why is the same situation present, and the same explanation given, in Poland, EU? Or, seeing from other comments, plenty other countries around the world? I'm seconding 'viraptor here - this isn't a good enough explanation. It doesn't stand up to scrutiny, and doesn't mesh well with day-to-day experience. Individual doctors I know seem to have very little influence over anything, and they're first in line t…
1. Doctors have a lot of political influence because they are popular. This means they can get away with things that other industries mostly can't.
2. State provision of medical care corrupts the system, as I describe sidethread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40030452
One way to drive "medical costs" down is to ensure that the supply of medical care is low. This also drives prices up. This means that the incentives of the regulatory body are directly contrary to the incentives of the people supposedly benefiting from the regulation.
(And doctors and hospitals are happy with this, because such a system boils down to telling them "we want you to do less work, but for more money".)
3. (Tangentially, note that the general model of "restrict supply, subsidize demand" is incredibly common. It's popular both ways; the first part helps a small but politically active and highly motivated group, and the second part pretends to help the populace in general.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not always. If I sell garden gnomes wearing knitted hats, but I only make three a year and sell to only people who drive yellow cars, I doubt I could earn a decent living off this
Don’t be obtuse. You’re comparing garden gnomes with healthcare.