In the next ten years how much will specialist salaries will be cut?

[surgery2121]

This is meant to be inflation adjusted in terms of todays money.

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[Drrrrrr. Celty]

This is meant to be inflation adjusted in terms of todays money.

i dont think anyone can really say.. period..

 

[surgery2121]

i dont think anyone can really say.. period..

Yea I know its an opinion poll

 

[BlueElmo]

Hopefully around 10% or less? I really don't know though.

 

[DrYoda]

Hard to see the future is.

I'm going to say in the 5%-10% range ( I voted 10%). Obviously certain specialities are going to bear the brunt of the cuts.

 

[surgery2121]

Hard to see the future is.

I'm going to say in the 5%-10% range ( I voted 10%). Obviously certain specialities are going to bear the brunt of the cuts.

And what specialties do you think those would be.

 

[2011MS1]

I keep hearing that they want to cut specialist such as Cardiologist and Radiologist by about ~40% on imaging procedures by 2015.

 

[chman]

Enough with the doom and gloom already. If you want my opinion they won't be. If you want to know my opinion as to why, just read my posts to similar threads or look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand

 

[skiddoc]

The thing about medicine is that it is not subject to normal supply and demand pressures. If there's an excess of doctors, they simply provide additional services to make up for the revenue lost to increased supply. With that said, I think prices will stay roughly the same.

 

[chman]

The thing about medicine is that it is not subject to normal supply and demand pressures. If there's an excess of doctors, they simply provide additional services to make up for the revenue lost to increased supply. With that said, I think prices will stay roughly the same.

I disagree. If there is a supply of sick people, there is a demand for doctors. There will be more than enough sick people in coming years, for reasons that are not hard to grasp.

 

[skiddoc]

I disagree. If there is a supply of sick people, there is a demand for doctors. There will be more than enough sick people in coming years, for reasons that are not hard to grasp.

Certainly, but oftentimes, doctors dictate the consumption of medicine to a higher degree than does the supply of sick people. People have always been sick throughout history, and will continue to be sick. I am not arguing with that. However, it is always the doctor that decides whether or not to prescribe anything.

 

[DrYoda]

And what specialties do you think those would be.

Rads is starting to look like a pretty sure thing to get cut. As for the rest, it's more likely to be the higher income ones, but your guess is as good as mine. I find it unlikely though that lower income specialities like endocrinolgy, ID ect would be singled out as a target for cuts.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I keep hearing that they want to cut specialist such as Cardiologist and Radiologist by about ~40% on imaging procedures by 2015.

If they cut cardiology by 40% no one will want to go into it period,radiology on the other hand being cut isnt too bad, again not by 40% but a 20% drop for them wouldn't be bad. I mean it is probably the highest paying lifestyle specialty, getting paid 400k when other specialists like cardio who do more study/work and barely get near that there obviously something wrong.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Rads is starting to look like a pretty sure thing to get cut. As for the rest, it's more likely to be the higher income ones, but your guess is as good as mine. I find it unlikely though that lower income specialities like endocrinolgy, ID ect would be singled out as a target for cuts.

I think that the cuts will be aimed specifically on cash crop specialties( derma/rads/other really high paying ones). I dont really think they will do anything to the IM specialities and if they do at most 20% of a cut. Also i think they do want to increase primary care salaries though, not by a lot but just enough to make them actually survivable with a debt of 250k.

 

[FlowRate]

The thing about medicine is that it is not subject to normal supply and demand pressures. If there's an excess of doctors, they simply provide additional services to make up for the revenue lost to increased supply. With that said, I think prices will stay roughly the same.

This isn't really the reason why your first statement is true. It's true because the government price fixes and otherwise congress-izes medicine.

 

[2011MS1]

If they cut cardiology by 40% no one will want to go into it period,radiology on the other hand being cut isnt too bad, again not by 40% but a 20% drop for them wouldn't be bad. I mean it is probably the highest paying lifestyle specialty, getting paid 400k when other specialists like cardio who do more study/work and barely get near that there obviously something wrong.

That is why the Cardiology Association (or w.e the name is) is sueing the US government

 

[TooMuchResearch]

I voted 20%, and I am comfortable with 20%.

 

[RevMD]

If they cut cardiology by 40% no one will want to go into it period,radiology on the other hand being cut isnt too bad, again not by 40% but a 20% drop for them wouldn't be bad. I mean it is probably the highest paying lifestyle specialty, getting paid 400k when other specialists like cardio who do more study/work and barely get near that there obviously something wrong.

I would be running for the hills if this happened. I want to go into cardiology, but destroying the earnings potential in 10 year will make me seriously consider another specialty.

I don't mind 10-20% drop if it means that we will be making quality healthcare more affordable and accessible to everyone. But, anything more would severely limit the supply of new cardiologists entering the field, which in turn brings us back to square one with the "lack of healthcare" issue.

That is why the Cardiology Association (or w.e the name is) is sueing the US government

The govt is only shooting itself in the foot if they try to make any aggressive cuts in earnings potential for specialists.

 

[minicow]

umm this isnt a free market
the govt is dictating a reduction in pay(or atleast taking actions that will require cuts somewhere)

i think everyone that takes medicare or insured patients is going to feel the blow as payouts are sure to decrease

other than that with the preposed tax on sending a patient to the specialists, of course the specialists will suffer

the govt doesnt care about docs and there arent enough docs willing to stand up against it(and a lot of americans already believe anyone making over 100k is a greedy pig anyways...so there wont be much help there)



hell half the nation could be doctors and protest a paycut and the govt would still be doing what theyre doing



conclusion: whatever % the govt thinks needs to be cut will probably be cut.....hopefully its in the 10% or less range....HOPEFULLY....
i would not be suprised to see incomes go down more than that though

 

[surgery2121]

I voted 20%, and I am comfortable with 20%.

20% cut probably results in a decrease of about 50K per year for specialists. The average attending works for about 30 years so your looking at about 1.5 million dollar lifetime cut. After taxes thats going to be about 800-900K of raw cash you would be losing. Lets see that can buy you a really really nice house, or 3 lamborghini's, or 40 rolex's, or 5-6 yatchs, or 50 years of a country club membership or etc.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

umm this isnt a free market
the govt is dictating a reduction in pay(or atleast taking actions that will require cuts somewhere)

i think everyone that takes medicare or insured patients is going to feel the blow as payouts are sure to decrease

other than that with the preposed tax on sending a patient to the specialists, of course the specialists will suffer

the govt doesnt care about docs and there arent enough docs willing to stand up against it(and a lot of americans already believe anyone making over 100k is a greedy pig anyways...so there wont be much help there)



hell half the nation could be doctors and protest a paycut and the govt would still be doing what theyre doing



conclusion: whatever % the govt thinks needs to be cut will probably be cut.....hopefully its in the 10% or less range....HOPEFULLY....
i would not be suprised to see incomes go down more than that though

neh.. free market.. or a government controlled market..
either way it really sucks.
Free market ( neoliberalism) will entice global revolution as we globalize and have nations going into deeper and deeper bankruptcy and abuse. Which in tern reduces our pay over here as our jobs get outsourced and we end up having to lower our prices to accept normal people who will now have fewer jobs. Government controlled market ( neoconservatism) eh.. the government is usually very very stupid and unequal representation = people thinking that doctors are making too much and should be making 100k or so a year. Either way the answer is the AMA needs to be replaced by a REAL ORGANIZATION which will defend us and actually tell people that we are human beings and not slaves.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

20% cut probably results in a decrease of about 50K per year for specialists. The average attending works for about 30 years so your looking at about 1.5 million dollar lifetime cut. After taxes thats going to be about 800-900K of raw cash you would be losing. Lets see that can buy you a really really nice house, or 3 lamborghini's, or 40 rolex's, or 5-6 yatchs, or 50 years of a country club membership or etc.

Sigh your over simplifying something thats really a complex thing. If we need to take a cut of 20%, how long do you think it'll last? when the main mass of the baby boomers start to get old we will be making 2x as much as we will be today with a 20% decrease.

 

[surgery2121]

Sigh your over simplifying something thats really a complex thing. If we need to take a cut of 20%, how long do you think it'll last? when the main mass of the baby boomers start to get old we will be making 2x as much as we will be today with a 20% decrease.

Lol yea I know its complete oversimplification and probably completely inaccurate. I was joking. But I guess the point is a 20% decrease is nothing to sigh over. It adds up. Sure as specialists with a 20% decrease we will be fine, probably still be relatively wealthy, but when is it going to stop. This past generation of physicians had this attitude and it lead to 1-2% decrease in salary every year for the past 15 years. I hope our generation of doctors is stronger and more proactive. We will survive with a 20% decrease in income but why should we have to?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Lol yea I know its complete oversimplification and probably completely inaccurate. I was joking. But I guess the point is a 20% decrease is nothing to sigh over. It adds up. Sure as specialists with a 20% decrease we will be fine, probably still be relatively wealthy, but when is it going to stop. This past generation of physicians had this attitude and it lead to 1-2% decrease in salary every year for the past 15 years. I hope our generation of doctors is stronger and more proactive. We will survive with a 20% decrease in income but why should we have to?

Lol jokes + internet dont work very well unless there extremely blunt.. this could also be me being half asleep and unable to think properly hahaha.

The end result is that anyone who takes home more then 125k a year is upper middle class. If you gotta a partner who can make around 50k+ your pretty much set for a decent upper middle class life.

 

[surgery2121]

Interesting results, looks like greater than 50% think the cuts will be less than 10%. So what is up with all the doom and gloom on sdn

 

[ILikeDrugs]

According to my inside sources, the cut will be exactly 23.543%. That's fact.