Ah, the poor doctors...
As I was sifting through all my trash email (a.k.a spam), I noticed this email with an "alarming" subject: "Fight to Stop Medicare Cuts Moves to U.S. House. Contact your representatives NOW."I got curious and I read the email in it's entirety. It presents the situation as dramatic: "If physician payment cuts are not addressed by Congress, physicians will face a 4.4 % cut in Medicare reimbursements in January. This cut will make it harder for new Medicare patients to get doctor appointments."
Now I'm confused - as some of you know, I tend to get "confused" when I read stupid, tricky non-sense bullshit. I'm aware that the majority of the non-doctor population is not doctor-friendly at all. I can also understand that a portion of this feeling is because of our envy to doctors who are much better well off than the rest of us.
I don't hate or envy doctors. I know they've studied and worked hard to become what they are and, of course, they need to reap the rewards of their efforts. What I don't like is greed. And that's exactly what this new "move" sounds to me. Last night we had an informal faculty gathering to meet the new chair of the program I teach in at a certain college. He has a Ph.D. in IT and was telling us about his "real" doctor brother who was on his fourth lake house and worrying where he'd park his Jaguar. Apparently, this "real"doctor had to change 4 lake houses for very serious reasons: one house was on the wrong side of the lake and he didn't like that it was facing East as the sun goes up, the other house was on a lake which was too shallow for him to use a speed boat and he was "forced" to use a pontoon one...and the list continues.
The Ph.D. Chair also told us that his nephew (the "real" doctor's son) had become a well-paid doctor. The funny thing is that when this nephew had decided to go to Medical school, he didn't do it "to help patients" or all that BS we hear from the "ever-sacrificing" doctors: he did quite a bit of research to find which specialty was the highest-paying job!
And don't try to tell me that these are very rare. Look at the groups of "angel investors" which invest $$ so us, the geeks, can build companies: they're mostly doctors, dentists and lawyers.
Back to that email I got. It was sent by a certain "Patients' Action Network" which is setup by the American Medical Association. What amazes me is how good these spin doctors are and how they are able to manipulate people's opinions by spinning this as if it were in people's interest. Yes, as a patient, I am very concerned that my doctor doesn't get a Medicare cut so he can buy his 4th house or 3rd boat, and I will fight bitterly so they can retain this right - even if that means that my taxes pay for their boat(s).
Why would they have to stop servicing patients and not take a 4.4% pay cut? I guarantee you that when they applied for med school and did their interview, they acted as they'd wanted to be doctors just because they love caring for people. Where's the caring now? If they care so much, what's the big deal? Or, why don't they go and volunteer, even if a couple of months each year, to save lives in Ghana or Angola or some other dirt poor African country?
So I say, cut my taxes and they better don't stop offering services to their patients! Hold them accountable to what they're sworn to do! Yes, I am pissed off!
This entry was posted
on Saturday, November 05, 2005 at 11:00 AM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
ByIf people were more healthy in developed nations, doctors would make much less money, then we could actually see how altruistic they could be by moving to less developed countries for the "love" of medicine and really making a difference....yeah right....
» Post a Comment