Impeding changes to our Health Care system

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by glatt

Also, US doctors, especially specialists, are paid more than in any other Western nations. There are other areas, like prescription drugs, where costs are higher than they should be, but the insurance companies and overpaid doctors account for most of the high cost in our system.

Well as soon as we significantly decrease their pay the incentive to go into those fields will disappear. I am not sure many people understand what it takes to become some of those specialists that everyone bitches about. And if there are less of those people you will get care from generalists who know a little about a lot of things. The other area that is not being addressed is tort reform. And until you drive down those costs do not expect that people are going to be further incentivized to go into those areas that have high risk.

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Well as soon as we significantly decrease their pay the incentive to go into those fields will disappear. I am not sure many people understand what it takes to become some of those specialists that everyone bitches about. And if there are less of those people you will get care from generalists who know a little about a lot of things. The other area that is not being addressed is tort reform. And until you drive down those costs do not expect that people are going to be further incentivized to go into those areas that have high risk.

Gawd, that is the same tired, old argument that is made about ANY POSITION where executives (or whatever) are blatantly overpaid. What a CROCK. No one is saying they shouldn't make money, it's the OBSCENE AMOUNTS they shouldn't be making. I think most doctors in other countries do very for themselves.

And ftr, we NEED more GPs and less specialists if we want to lower costs. The GPs need to make more, and the specialists need to make less.

Malpractice is a very small part of the rising costs.
...Tort reformers like to argue that fear of lawsuits forces doctors to practice “defensive medicine”, which then adds billions of dollars to the cost of health care each year. In fact, a 2004 report by the Congressional Budget Office said that medical malpractice claims constitute less than 2% of U.S. health spending...
http://lansing.injuryboard.com/misce...oogleid=269472