How much money should doctors make?
That’s a question that was discussed in our regional newspaper a few months ago. How much should doctors make? There was no firm answer. But I was intrigued by the question.
Some people might read this and think that I’m whining or being defensive. I’m really not. I mean, I make a comfortable living and I’m happy with it. That being said, more money is always nice, and I wouldn’t be disappointed if I suddenly was paid for all of the people I see. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.
What I want to know is, how much money should anyone make? And then, I want to know who decides. There’s a fair amount of talk among political progressives/liberals about trying to make the economic system more fair, more equitable. When I hear that, I always figure that it means trying to even things out and lower the top, raise the bottom. So, I’m wondering what’s too much money?
My sense is that the people who make too much money are generally those who make more than we do. I mean, for everyone. If someone makes more than a given individual, that individual frequently feels that the person making more makes too much.
However, we tolerate it in certain spheres. We don’t begrudge rappers their millions, or athletes theirs. We don’t complain, usually, about expensive attorneys if they’re on our side and doing a good job. We seldom complain about building contractors, since we know up front if we can afford their work, or the house they’re building for us.
No one bats an eye about the rising price of paying senators or congressmen, and we seem to stand in awe of the high prices commanded by former politicians just to speak at dinners. The salaries and benefits of tenured college professors seem to elicit a yawn in general conversation, even though the price of college is rising and college educations can be difficult for some kids to afford. ‘Oh well, he’s a professor. He’s earned a good living!’
We may moan about the fees of plumbers or heating and air guys (or gals), but we know we have to have them and so, we pony up the money and write the check. (And plenty of them make as much as physicians!) Then we kind of smile, knowing that those folks often have no college education and are really smoking the European Literature or Psychology degree holders when it comes to money earned.
On to medicine. Doctors just make too much money, right? I don’t know. Maybe, because medicine is something people need, rather than want, we think physicians get paid too much. Maybe we do, maybe we don’t. But I think there’s an inherent danger in the very question.
The idea of America has always been, not equal success, but equal opportunity to try and succeed. We have fallen down a lot, denying equal opportunity many times in the past. But we keep getting better.
I hope that we remember that. I hope that we don’t decide that someone, read ‘government’ is going to start deciding who makes how much. Because it won’t stop with medicine. It will go on and on until the control of compensation is far removed from the person doing the work, and barely influenced by the amount of effort or drive one puts into education and work itself.
I see a lot of working poor, and I admire them. We don’t, to my knowledge, initiate collections lawsuits against them. But we also see a lot of folks who simply won’t work. Young, healthy, capable and lazy as red-clay dirt. They may think we doctors make too much money. And the folks who want their votes may say so.
But who should really decide? Me, you, the federal government?
A tough question, but one that bears watching. By everyone, no matter how much or little they make.
Edwin
Well, given the student loans, malpractice insurance, and years of resident salaries, I would say that physicians are generally not paid enough. But, for some reason, health-care has become an entitlement in this country. So everyone thinks someone else should pay for it.
You’re absolutely right. The ‘who’, will of course be the government if we continue down the road we’re on. I think the difference between the plumber (which we need if our pipes burst) and the doctor is the way in which payment decisions are made. I, as an individual, decide to hire the plumber and then I pay him with my own money. Doctors, in contrast, are hired by an individual and then (generally) paid at least partially with someone else’s money. Whether from the private insurance pool or from tax dollars. I think problems always arise when people, acting rightly or wrongly, in their own self-interest do so using other people’s money.
So, I think we have two choices. We either force all people to pay for their own health care, or we force all people to send their money to the government for health care payment. In the former case individuals will decide how their money is best spent and in the latter the government will do so. Neither side is pretty (although I think the latter leads to some pretty nasty side effects). I suppose that this will all get figured out in the next few years, and likely without me recieving a call from the President asking my opinion =).
Actually, I do become a bit upset when a 21 year old is offered millions of dollars a year because he can play a childs game, be it baseball, football or basketball. And more so when that kind of money is poured out to children who can act or sing, who then grow up with the moral values of ally cats. It’s even worse when it goes to adults for acting or singing who quickly forget that no one is entitled and as far as it goes, you are the way you behave.
I do not begrudge my doctors what they make. But I do wish that some of them would make an attempt to understand what it is like to live on a budget when they are prescribing overpriced brand name medications and there is an appropriate generic available. Or that a $30 co-pay becomes a problem if I have to pay it several times a month, or sometimes a week. That because I have a health care spending account doesn’t mean that I can afford to drain it by the end of January. But that in no way means that I think the government should regulate what they make. It sounds more than a bit like an Orwellian Society move to me.
That being said, Congress does decide what my son who is in Iraq on his third tour is allowed to make. And I feel strongly that he is horrendously underpaid for the sacrafices he has made and is continuing to make.
Considering what Police and Emergency workers make, I wonder how long it would take the government to make it more profitable for Doctors to flip burgers.
Emmy,
Without question, your son deserves far more money than he gets. I’d raise his salary dramatically if it were up to me! It’s one thing to work, but quite another to work while in danger of bullets, IED’s, RPG’s, mortars and kidnapping.
Thanks for your comment, and my sincerest regards to your son.
And as for the drug costs, for what it’s worth, I always write for generic and try to help folks meet the WalMart $4 list when I can. Very few problems require new, brand-name drugs. Most can be solved with older, very inexpensive ones. And you’re right, co-pays are a lot worse when paying them multiple times each month.
Sincerely,
Edwin
That’s an interesting question. My initial response would be, if I or any member of my family were seriously ill I would want my doctor earning a very high salary. Although it would cost me a lot I could be assured that only the very best could command such a high rate, and therefore that the treatment/advice I am getting is of a high quality. However if I could not afford such a price then I would have to settle for the doctor who scored 51% on the doctoring exam. If the government decided that it would be a good idea to have high quality doctors for everyone (sharing the cost across tax payers) then how would the government know who is doing a relatively better job of doctoring than someone else (there would be no market to guide them). Tricky, maybe a mixed system could work, the government pays a reasonable (the devil is in detail) co-payment and the doctors are allowed to set their own fees. Hmmm. How is this any different from the first model, won’t doctors just hike their fees up and pocket the co-payment as well (they are working for their own interest after all). So why not fix the upper fee limit? Then you get back to the question of ‘How much money should doctors make?’ and personally my answer to that is… Doctors should earn a lot if the population is really healthy (doctors are doing a fabulous job and should rewarded) and doctors should earn a lot if the population is not very healthy (doctors are working very hard). However the question of who should pay? Well that’s also tricky, and the ‘who’ helps to determine the ‘how much’ a lot is.
Mike.
What could be more important than having a good doctor or surgeon take care of you?
Inorder to attract these individuals with interest in providing commpasionate care for patients, unique skill set, and extensive training salaries are a must.
Next time you have a serious health problem who will you chose…the professional sports player who makes 5 million a year or the doctor/surgeon who will not make anywhere near this one year salary this over his or her life time. Who is more valuable to society?
Poor compensation rates from health insurance companies, high over head cost to run a medical practice, litiginous society and high medical malpractice rate (despite most physician have never been sued), are running good compassionate physicians/surgeons out of the medical field. The cream of the crop is leaving as salaries are declining for doctors. The quality of health care and patients will and is suffering.
For those of you that think nationalized health care would be better
please watch the link below.
http://www.truveo.com/Daniel-Hannan-on-Hannity-March-26th-2009/id/64262223
As soon as you let government decide how much you should be paid America
as we know it is done and there is no going back.
If you think doctors are getting paid too much, how about the insurance companies that take more than half their income? Most of the people are not paying doctors, they are paying the rich insurance companies, which in turn are owned by politicians that make all the health-care policy rules…
But, I don’t know. Honestly, my dad is a doctor and he works literally 17 hours a day. Sometimes he has to work overnight in hospitals. When I am stayed up late studying during high school past midnight, I see him come home, with bloodshot eyes, fatigued. needing sleep. And he falls asleep on the couch instantly. But then he gets a call. An emergency patient, and he gets up right away. There are no questions, and no matter how tired or sick he is himself, even when he has a high-running fever, he never has time to rest and has to always be taking care of others. And, he never complains. Never did, not even once.
Honestly, I used to have a lot of grudges against my dad. When my other friends would tell me how they spent time with their family, fathers included, I would hate my dad for not spending time with me and the rest of the family. I used to hate him for being such a workaholic but you think about it, doctors have really sad lives, and I came to admire him. But, I ask him if he likes his job, and he says he loves it. You give up your family time, sleep, “life” and dedicate your whole life to studying, learning, working long hours that takes much more stamina than you can ever imagine. But he still tells me he loves his job. Maybe hes crazy.
But, I really admire him and his motivation and stamina is really different from the average people you meet. I know this may sound irrevalent, but even when he was young, he caught fireflies during the day so that he had light to study at night. He can ride the bicycle with no hands, because he had to do it to study on the way to school. He had to take on 3 part-time jobs to support his 6 siblings. Would people understand how much he had to sacrifice and go through, to get where he is now? And, do we, as a doctor’s family live rich, extravagant lives? I agree we are not starving to death nor having problems paying off our dept. We live in a modest home and my dad has never taken more than 2-3 days off at a time. Actually, you know what, my dad has a pretty nice car but can’t he be rewarded that? I mean, he may have an expensive car, but he only buys 5$ T-shirts from Walmart.
In order to be a doctor, my opinion is that you have to be extremely, extremely strong and motivated, mentally and physically. I am realizing this also as a premed student (following the steps of my ultimate role model: my dad). Haha, too bad I am not that strong, and I might have to drop out soon…
Hmm, I sleep at most 4-5 hours a day and am constantly battling with my own self. Here in college, while a lot of my other friends students take nice breaks and party time to time, I am in the library constantly struggling and studying, stressed out 24/7. I do get depressed a lot, and I realize how much it takes to be even just a serious premed student. I feel like a prisoner, but I want to do this. Maybe I am crazy too. But, I see the smiling faces of patients leaving my father’s clinic as they thank him in gratitude.
That’s the imagery that is keeping me going in this hellhole…
But, even rich doctors, I’m sure have no lives…
Maybe my point is to say that they are all crazy. Including premeds like myself.
The government should regulate what doctors can charge. Yes we need doctors. Yes they are smart, have degrees, and keep us healthy. However doctors fees are the root of Americas health care crisis in 2010. As a consumer do you think it’s fair a doctors charges $75 for a general exam and another doctor in the same city is charging $200 for the exact same service. Well that is what is happening everyday across America. Everyone points fingers at health insurance companies but the health care crisis is not all there fault. The government regulates taxes and so many things but doctor’s put money in politicians pockets so they get a free pass…