Physician Reimbursement and Health Care Reform

Why is that out of all of the physicians that I've talked to since 2004, only one said that they will tell their kid to go into medicine. There is going to be a physician crisis in the next 5 to 10 years. The smart guys that did goto medical school are going to go into different fields. Lay people have a REAL false impression on the lifestyle of a physician and our income after overhead/operating expenses. Physicians are not raising the cost of health care and we are not benefiting from the high premiums either. When new medical technology or medications come out the only physicians that benefit from them are the medical directors of those companies or the creators.

This is a history of the cuts to physicians since 1992.

http://www.google.com/search?q=physician+reimbursement+cuts+history&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=oqIvS9nEFoaMswOUsZHABA&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CDAQ5wIwCg

However, their is a ton of propaganda to college and medical students that they will get properly reimbursed for taking care of people. Well that is not true. Every year we hear that we are overpaid and to work harder. Physicians respond to that by working harder because of their nature as hard workers. Since physicians usually can not agree or many times not get along, it will be extremely difficult to stand up as a united front, especially when the physician groups are not advocating for physicians the way they should, for whatever reason.

Health Care Reform

In the Senate hearings on Health Care Reform one can mostly tell if you are going to hear a positive or negative comment on the bill based on if a Republican or Democrat speaks. Second, no one is mentioning how physicians are getting financially hurt by the insurance companies when it comes to reimbursement. Next both sides are presenting data from the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) that contradicts each other. On one hand President Obama and the Democrats give on set of data and the Republicans give another. There can only be one set of data. The numbers are being twisted and falsely presented by one side or the other and the American people don't have access to the data.

Neither Democrats/Republicans know how to fix this. There are good things in the bill but then there are things that need to be fixed. They need physicians that are on the front lines and not sent by the AMA/HMO's to help them decide, not hospital administrators or insurance companies. The hospitals need to have physician leadership. Those that provide the health care need to be the ones leading the charge and reforming it.

They also need to add in the bill that people have to right not to use or use their insurance for certain services. Patients should be able to pay cash for an office visit but use their insurance for big ticket items such as MRI's or Surgery. You should not be forced to use your insurance for everything if you don't want to. It is yours or is it?