Do you make 'enough' money?

[TheMercenary]

Hmmmm... I make enough. I should work less. That is what my family says. But seriously, I want to work really hard to make a better life for my kids and be sure my wife is set up if I kick it early, and or save for when we/she gets older. I know that few of you will believe this but after I retired from the military I more than trippled my salary and work twice + the hours. My average work week is 50 to 110 hours a week, every week. I will have a period of 3 or 4 days off in a row everyother month and one 2 week period a year where I am off from my regular job, but often I just work somewhere else. I currently have one job as an employee, 4 as an independent contractor, and one where I don't have to do shit as I draw retirement pay from the military. I feel driven to make more, work harder, for as long as I can until I am dead. Life goes on.

[busterb]

Old man goes to dr. Gets a shot and a scrip. Dr tells him if not better tomorrow comeback.
Old man, why, going to give me my money back?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by SamIam

And, anyhow, I don't have much sympathy for someone who whines about making a mere 150K/year...
I would assume that at least some people are drawn to medicine for other reasons than money - reasons that cause them to suck it in and eke out an existance at a lowly 150K.

I guess you just completely skimmed over the part where a huge portion of that salary, often over $100,000 a year, goes directly to paying for malpractice insurance? Hint: subtraction is the key here.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by SamIam

...I don't have much sympathy for someone who whines about making a mere 150K/year....

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I guess you just completely skimmed over the part where a huge portion of that salary, often over $100,000 a year, goes directly to paying for malpractice insurance? Hint: subtraction is the key here.

I think making refers to what he puts into his pocket AFTER expenses like insurance. But that's just a guess...

[Cicero]

..........yea this is awesome.

[theotherguy]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I guess you just completely skimmed over the part where a huge portion of that salary, often over $100,000 a year, goes directly to paying for malpractice insurance? Hint: subtraction is the key here.

I am sure it works differently for different docs, but many times malpractice ins is paid by the practice.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by theotherguy

I am sure it works differently for different docs, but many times malpractice ins is paid by the practice.

It still comes out of your bottom line to the practice as potential income. It is an expense that must be paid every year.

[theotherguy]

Very true, but it is not necessarily a direct 1-to-1 correlation to a doc's salary unless it is a single doc in the practice.

Don't misunderstand me here. I think they deserve the money made. Some even deserve more than what they get once told by the insurance carriers what they get to make.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by theotherguy

Very true, but it is not necessarily a direct 1-to-1 correlation to a doc's salary unless it is a single doc in the practice.

Don't misunderstand me here. I think they deserve the money made. Some even deserve more than what they get once told by the insurance carriers what they get to make.

One practice I work for has 4 docs. They get all get a salary. Then they get a bonus based on the amount of work they do individually. It is a big busy practice and they all make a pretty good chunk of change. They all pay nearly 100k in malpractice each. The practice pays for it. The practice only gets income because of the docs. The docs are the only source of income, no docs, no income, no practice. If they did not have income to the business the business could not pay their malpractice, from their income. The higher the malpractice payment the less they have for other costs, including their own salary, and the salary of about 30 people who work for them.

[theotherguy]

That is what I am saying. I am not sure if you are agreeing with me or not.

Let's say the malpractice ins gets cut in half so they now have, just to simply things, an extra $200,000 in profit for the group. That doesn't mean that they will each get an extra $50,000. They probably would like to spend that money on extra support staff or new equipment or more current magazines in the waiting room. In my business, an extra $3,000,000 to our bottom line does not immediately get divided up among the managers and partners. It does increase our bonuses, but not by a total of $3,000,000.

I am not saying that it would absolutely not change how much money the doc takes home. It might. It might not. I was simply refuting Clod's claim that a large portion of a doc's 100K salary goes to pay for malpractice insurance.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by theotherguy

That is what I am saying. I am not sure if you are agreeing with me or not.

Let's say the malpractice ins gets cut in half so they now have, just to simply things, an extra $200,000 in profit for the group. That doesn't mean that they will each get an extra $50,000. They probably would like to spend that money on extra support staff or new equipment or more current magazines in the waiting room. In my business, an extra $3,000,000 to our bottom line does not immediately get divided up among the managers and partners. It does increase our bonuses, but not by a total of $3,000,000.

I am not saying that it would absolutely not change how much money the doc takes home. It might. It might not. I was simply refuting Clod's claim that a large portion of a doc's 100K salary goes to pay for malpractice insurance.

We are in agreement. But when people pay out such large sums the only way they see it is that it is robbery, which it is in many cases.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by theotherguy

I was simply refuting Clod's claim that a large portion of a doc's 100K salary goes to pay for malpractice insurance.

...I was with you right up until the point where you said all your other points somehow refuted mine. Yes, malpractice can sometimes instead be a large portion of the practice's income, which directly affects how much money is left for doctors' salaries... I don't really see why that is anything other than a semantic difference. I agree with everything you have said.

48% of all counties in the US have no OB-GYNs at all, because either the hospitals or the doctors or both cannot afford to practice in those areas.

[elSicomoro]

For the record, I did not make enough money this week. I'm not going to be thrown out of my apartment or anything, but business has been so bad recently at the shops. Of course, my boss recently bought a new minivan for his family, so he must be doing well.