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Originally Posted by Shawnee123
When my bones were protuding from my arm I don't remember them beating me up for my insurance card: they got me into treatment and the paperwork came later. This isn't, of course, the same as showing up with the sniffles, which is what uninsured people HAVE to do because they have nowhere else to go, under the current system.
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When we took my daughter to the ER this summer, nobody asked about payment or insurance until after she was taken care of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMercenary
Maybe we just know different people but this is hardly my experience. In one private practice clinic where I work 4 doctors make up the practice, any 2 or 3 of them are there every day 5 days a week, plus a Nurse Practitioner and some times a PA. Everyone of them sees 40 to 65 patients every day. And they are specialists. Few specialists have the kind of time they can just sit around and have lazy days on their boats. They all work 7 days a week seeing patients in the hospital on a rotational basis. They take 24 hour call Mon thru Thurs and 72 hour call on a rotational basis. Malpractice is well over $100,000 a year. They have a staff of over 30 in this one office, from RN's to clerks and an office manager. The office is open from 830 am to when ever they are done, usually around 5 pm. How long do you think it takes to get an education to start and run a practice like this? How about the personal and financial costs associated with getting the education? Pick a specialty and I will give you an idea of the time it takes to get that specialty. The idea that most docs live the Life of Reilly is a misnomer in my experience. The hours are long and most people could never keep up.
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My workplace has the ophthalmologist, who has been here for about 30 years, a tech, a receptionist, a billing/accounting clerk, an office manager, and me. The doctor work 1/2 days on Mon, Wed, and Thu, full day on Fri, full day on 3 of 4 Tues/month. The rest of us work more than he does, and make less. He drives a Mercedes, owns 4 properties in Haddonfield, a VERY expensive town, flies places on his quarterly (or more) vacations. Tough life.