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tater · 04-03-10, 10:09 PM

Worse, it's a huge tax on doctors. Both medicare and particularly medicaid reimburse below direct cost of care for doctors—specialist docs, anyway.

That does not include the doctors time at all. Meaning the doc gets paid $50 to see someone, and his rent, electricity, insurance, and staff costs for the number of minutes the patient is seen is greater than that $50 payment.

So the doc gets to pay taxes into medicare/medicaid based on their income, AND they literally have to pay money out of pocket to fix them—then they get sued if it doesn't turn out perfect.

Note that surgeons, and many other specialists cannot refuse either type of patient (or any at all, actually) from the ER. So while they can not take new patients in clinic, should either turn up at the ER they MUST see them, even if they lose money to do so.

This is not a matter of "greed," the docs don't get paid AT ALL to see them, and in fact pay for that privilege. It's insane. They cannot ever write-off such care as the charity work it is.

As a reality check, medicaid alone costs my family probably 20 grand a year out of pocket. That's enough to pay for both kids to go to private school. if you count my wife's time as worth, well, anything, it's worse. If you count her time as what it is actually worth, it's FAR worse.

This issue is important because for the bulk of the country, the largest healthcare problem is NOT cost, it's the number of docs. We get headhunter mail for the wife all the time (every other day at least) offering huge salaries to move to the middle of nowhere, or some other undesirable locale. There is a shortage of nurses, too. Nobody wants to wait 6-8 weeks to get an appointment with a specialist, but when there are only 50% of the ideal minimal number, that's what's going to happen.

04-03-10, 10:09 PM	#2
tater Navy Seal Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: New Mexico, USA Posts: 9,023 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 2	Worse, it's a huge tax on doctors. Both medicare and particularly medicaid reimburse below direct cost of care for doctors—specialist docs, anyway. That does not include the doctors time at all. Meaning the doc gets paid $50 to see someone, and his rent, electricity, insurance, and staff costs for the number of minutes the patient is seen is greater than that $50 payment. So the doc gets to pay taxes into medicare/medicaid based on their income, AND they literally have to pay money out of pocket to fix them—then they get sued if it doesn't turn out perfect. Note that surgeons, and many other specialists cannot refuse either type of patient (or any at all, actually) from the ER. So while they can not take new patients in clinic, should either turn up at the ER they MUST see them, even if they lose money to do so. This is not a matter of "greed," the docs don't get paid AT ALL to see them, and in fact pay for that privilege. It's insane. They cannot ever write-off such care as the charity work it is. As a reality check, medicaid alone costs my family probably 20 grand a year out of pocket. That's enough to pay for both kids to go to private school. if you count my wife's time as worth, well, anything, it's worse. If you count her time as what it is actually worth, it's FAR worse. This issue is important because for the bulk of the country, the largest healthcare problem is NOT cost, it's the number of docs. We get headhunter mail for the wife all the time (every other day at least) offering huge salaries to move to the middle of nowhere, or some other undesirable locale. There is a shortage of nurses, too. Nobody wants to wait 6-8 weeks to get an appointment with a specialist, but when there are only 50% of the ideal minimal number, that's what's going to happen.