Physicians will always have jobs (hopefully) since our numbers are well regulated, but what happens when the pool of labor for professions like RNs, PharmDs, PAs, NPs, etc. etc becomes so large that hospitals and health care networks no longer have to hire full times staffs and can just hire temp or part time workers to run their entire operation? That way they can save huge amounts of labor costs by not having to pay health insurance or retirement benefits. Having an unstable revolving door of temp or part-time care givers would most likely not be optimal for the patient, and even if physicians won't be plagued with labor surpluses, we should still at least care how labor surpluses in other domains affect patient care. All you hear about time after time is the impending shortage of workers in health care due to the rapidly aging baby boomer population. Is this actually true? Does anyone even ever bother to double check and triple check the facts? Why are nursing students and pharmD students starting to have a lot of trouble finding employment if there is indeed such a severe shortage? If or when this bubble bursts, wages will decline across the board, physicians included. The amount we are currently spending on health care is unsustainable. The biggest way to reduce health care costs is to cut labor costs. If you have a huge pool of workers you can easily do that by doing the temp or part time model and cutting out their health care and retirement benefit costs. I'm really curious as to what organizations are the ones beating the drums that we have a shortage of health care workers. Wouldn't be surprised at all if it is hospitals or business sides of health care networks, the ones that stand to save the most money if they can convince the public to supply them with an overabundance of cheap labor.
your post clearly shows your ignorance.
1. No hospital would only hire temps to run everything. ever. That is pure garbage.
2. if a nurse has a problem finding a job it is because she/he is inflexible in where they would like to work. Not every nurse can be at the local children's hospital.
3. health care costs are not high due to labor costs. In fact if everyone only paid what medicare pays it wouldn't be expensive. But a hospital can only save so much money by cutting staff. Yes it is easy to start with that, trimming the fat in a bloated hospital, but that leads to other problems as well such as poorer patient care and the possibilty for lawsuits and mistakes for example.
A doctor cannot simply cut his office staff to save money because that means he/she would spend more time doing the things they were paid to do thus not allowing him/her to see as many patients.
costs in the health system is a very complicated topic. It's more than just doctors, health staff, hospitals, but also all the drug manufacturers, insurace companies, and all the people that work for them. Health care in the US is a huge chunk of the pie but that doesn't necessarily mean it is bad. The system can be made more efficient. Ineffective screening and exams can be done away with. Emergency rooms can be expanded and include more mid level positions to make it more effecient and safe. Tax incentives for people with healthy weights, getting their screening tests, seeing their PCP for problems not needed in the ED, etc.
I think a great part of the cost is from people who do nothing about their health care and then go to the ED and get admitted with no way of being able to pay for their care. These people are generally of lower socioeconomic status, lower education levels, etc. These are the people who keep coming back to the ED in acute CHF because they stopped taking their meds. There are ways to adress these issues not just in the health care field but from a broader social sense. Understand though that not everyone can be rich, smart, own a home, etc. There will always be poor people. There should also be a point at which a person needs to take responsibility for themselves. If that person who keeps coming in for CHF does so because he hasn't even tried getting a job, education, never went to essentially free followup appointments, that person should be turned away. Yes it sounds bad but there has got to be a point. But by then the person will have been set up by social work for jobs, education, f/u, calling to check in, etc and if that person then does absolutely nothing how is it fair to everyone else who tries their best to stay healthy and move up?
And then what about that person who gets sick and just goes straight to the ED? And be mindful their illness is not some acute condition. Then that person has no ability to pay. They go because it is free. Then what about all those unnecessary tests run for people with vague complaints. Drug seekers. Somatization disorder patients. The list goes on.
Unfortunately the reality is that there are some people who are abusing the system and hurting those who do not.
