10 Ways to Fix Health Care: Opinions from 10 Experts
Amy from the Online Nursing Degree Directory emailed me to let me know about a new post on the ONDD blog about how to fix health care. All ten opinions are interesting, but here's the one I like the most.
6. Cut costs for med students
Like CDC head Julie Gerberding, Robert B. Goldberg, who heads the Medical Society of the State of New York, also points to medical school as the place to start change. But his argument focuses on the costs to students, not the separation of education. Large amounts of debt, he says, forces many medical students to specialize in one area instead of becoming the more needed primary care physicians.If payment structures were changed, Goldberg says, the best and the brightest medical students might be able to afford to select primary care as their field. Giving future doctors more accessibility to electing primary care as their specialty would reduce scheduling delays, improve quality of care and allow for more efficient medical practices, Goldberg says.
Personally, I think we need to have complete student loan forgiveness for most doctors. I would imagine that physician availability would increase if it didn't cost $200k+ to get an M.D.
P.S. - None of these experts say the solution is tort reform.
It's an interesting idea. But many would argue that it's one step closer to socialism. But is that so bad? The problem I see is that Medicine and Capitalism should never mix. If doctors didn't make so much money, I think there would be fewer doctors, fewer malpractice suits, lowered prescription costs, and not so many drugs on the market that pop up with more dangerous side effects. If a state collects an Income Tax, then it is in their best interest to educate citizens. But if every person has a degree, then most people would be making about the same amount of money. Insurance in itself was suppose to help alleviate the high cost of medical care. But it's only increased the cost of that medical care for those who aren't insured. I think states should have a program for people seeking to become doctors. Employ doctors per (X) number of people in a community. And in exchange for a free education, you must work as a community doctor. After 10 years you would be free to work in the private sector. If you leave before then, you will owe money back for the education due immediately.
Some say it sounds like we'd be moving closer to socialism. I say... so what? Didn't your parents ever teach you to share? When was the last time you volunteered for a good cause?
Honestly.. Necessities to live or survive should not become a part of Capitalism. When money can be made on people who are sick or dying... the only concern is how to prolong life, not cure it. Cure's suddenly take the bench while treatments are piled on. Could you imagine how many drug companies would collapse if there was a cure for cancer or HIV? The mere announcement would collapse our economy. Run for the hills!
Posted by: Gene | May 01, 2008 at 01:14 PM
I'm graduating in a year and I've already acquired about $50,000 in debt so I'm all for socialism. But if the cost of becoming a doctor significantly decreased--by the rules of supply and demand--so too would the average income of doctors. Who would want to go through 8 grueling years of post-secondary education if they could make just as much money if they stopped at 4? So while the idea of graduating debt-free is appealing, I don't think it would work in today's capitalistic, consumerist society.
Also, if you could get a "free" medical education on the condition that you work as a community doctor for 10 years, wouldn't that be worse than the current situation of a recent med school graduate with $200K+ loans that can be paid off within a few years?
Posted by: rozina | May 02, 2008 at 03:30 AM