Physician shortage and incomes?

[dd128]

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So I'm sure most people are all to familiar with all the gloom and doom associated with our future incomes due to managed care, possible socialized medicine, and the numerous other issues, but I was sort of wondering what possible impact the projected shortage of physicians would have on incomes? I'm about the furthest you can get from a business major, but if a job specialty is in demand and there are less people to fill that particular niche wouldn't programs be inclined to pay more for physicians? Anyone have any ideas how this is all going to play out?

 

[AZhopeful]

I agree with you that there is a shortage and in a free-market system that would mean greater compensation for docs; however, the problem is that healthcare(except for the boutique-medicine world) is not a pure free market. You have a central government agency telling doctors how much it will pay them, and then you have insurance companies doing the same. Both have a degree to which they can be bargained with, though it's not much.

Arguably, under the current system, a shortage may not necessarily mean that much of an increase for doctor's wages. Now, please excuse me while I go look for my secret libertarian decoder ring.

 

[ninjapenguin]

Arguably, under the current system, a shortage may not necessarily mean that much of an increase for doctor's wages.

A shortage of physicians will NEVER result in the increase of salaries for two reasons: mainly since healthcare is a necessity and not a luxury, but also because there is nowhere near a shortage of people wanting to become doctors.

 

[njbmd]

Moved to topics in healthcare as this is not an allopathic medical school issue.

 

[Miami_med]

1. There is no physician shortage
2. Medicine is not a free market
3. If there were a physician shortage, there are a huge number of people trying to become physicians who cannot.
4. Your pay and the number of physicians are both independent variables largely controlled by the government which don't interact in any sort of logical way.

 

[Faebinder]

1. There is no physician shortage
2. Medicine is not a free market
3. If there were a physician shortage, there are a huge number of people trying to become physicians who cannot.
4. Your pay and the number of physicians are both independent variables largely controlled by the government which don't interact in any sort of logical way.

👍

 

[Doc97]

There is no shortage of physicians, allied health or other health care providers. We will not see income increase because market forces do not apply. Health care consumers have organized and benefit from collective negotiation. Health care providers are expressly prohibited by the FTC from engaging in such collusion. The managed care organizations are able to present providers with "take it or leave it" one sided contracts limiting their own costs and liabilities while making substantial demands on practitioners. This trend will continue.

In a happy irony, health care consumers are becoming increasingly frustrated with the greedy machines they've placed between themselves and their physicians.

 

[Faebinder]

Infact, the government is happy to see a shortage of ANY provider. Shortage = less total $$ needed in a year from the budget.

 

[Xavier08]

I do believe I disagree with the sentiments of most of the replies. I think most of them are short sighted.
This "physician shortage" everyone is referring to is relative. As the government and insurance companies try to push through reimbursement cuts, they want to see as many physicians fighting over the minimal fees that they arbitrarily determine, like crumbs from their table. In order for this to happen, they have to convince medical educators to increase medical school enrollment and residency slots, and programs are responding unfortunately.
If residency programs across the board were as savvy as derm, they'd take a hint that the fewer docs in the field, the better the lifestyle. Do you think derm would be so competitive and yield such a great lifestyle if they kept opening more slots like most other specialties have over the years? Derm has limited the number of trainees, and therefore they control supply. Any field of medicine could do the same with greater or lesser degrees of success.
Pathology used to be a prime gig, but now they've over-trained and the field is saturated, forcing colleagues to compete for jobs and contracts.

My take on all of this is that there is only a "physician shortage" in the eyes of those who have to pay physicians. The more of something there is, the less value it has, pure and simple.

So what's going to happen? More med school slots will open, residency slots, and new schools will open, more IMGs will be admitted. The field of medicine will continue to decrease in overall quality because more students are admitted who previously wouldn't have made the cut. You will have to compete with these people for jobs that pay less and less because they are willing to work for less and less.

If you think I'm wrong, just wait.

 

[167649]

1. There is no physician shortage
2. Medicine is not a free market
3. If there were a physician shortage, there are a huge number of people trying to become physicians who cannot.
4. Your pay and the number of physicians are both independent variables largely controlled by the government which don't interact in any sort of logical way.

Sums me up pretty well...