Would you go into medicine if Congress doesn't fix the 21% Medicare cuts?

[randombetch]

Just wondering...

http://www.ocma.org/cma/congress-fails-stop-medicare-cuts-cma-communications-members-posted-3210

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[Cleavername]

Just wondering...

http://www.ocma.org/cma/congress-fails-stop-medicare-cuts-cma-communications-members-posted-3210

plan b time.

i plan on double majoring something business/fiance related on the side of my biochemistry.

 

[thamsenman]

Yeah I would. But I'm sure a lot of other people won't.

This bill claims to reduce the deficit, btw, assuming an immediate, 21% doctor pay cut and further cuts according to some sustainable growth medicare formula they use.

With the dr. fix if they pass it, this bill will probably be at least 60B in red ink again.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Mmmmmm.... Blower. PhD in psychology here I come.. But yah I can always on my 3rd year go into engineering and spend a 5th year.
But I get the feeling that I'd still go into medicine, a PhD will get me a 70k payrole and engineering will get me a 60k payrole< I probably won't like it>. Specialties even if they go down majorly It'll still probably be double that salary.

All I can say is.... I hope medical school gets cheaper/ less competitive.

 

[gymtanlaundry]

Of course not.

 

[bobsmith]

If anyone's curious about the background history about medicare/medicare payments and how this goes back to 1965, NPR did a segment on it last month (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124090475).

Interestingly, the main reason medicare prices spiraled out of control was because, back in 1965, the only way doctors would accept medicare payments was with the concession that doctors could set prices on what procedures they did. Amazingly, before that, doctors gave out a lot of free healthcare to old people!

 

[BBender716]

Simple solution: give medicare patients 21% lower quality care than before.

 

[EulerianCircuit]

Mmmmmm.... Blower. PhD in psychology here I come.. But yah I can always on my 3rd year go into engineering and spend a 5th year.
But I get the feeling that I'd still go into medicine, a PhD will get me a 70k payrole and engineering will get me a 60k payrole< I probably won't like it>. Specialties even if they go down majorly It'll still probably be double that salary.

All I can say is.... I hope medical school gets cheaper/ less competitive.

My brother is a chemical engineer 4 years out of college. He makes ~100k.
Also, if med school gets less competitive, salaries will go down even further.

 

[Cleavername]

My brother is a chemical engineer 4 years out of college. He makes ~100k.
Also, if med school gets less competitive, salaries will go down even further.

nice. what kind of engineers make the most $$$ ?

 

[randombetch]

My brother is a chemical engineer 4 years out of college. He makes ~100k.
Also, if med school gets less competitive, salaries will go down even further.

Not necessarily... If med school gets less competitive, supply and demand has no effect since the number of doctors produced per year would remain constant. The quality would go down for sure though. If people demand higher quality, then salary would increase and med school would get more competitive. If people don't demand higher quality, then salary would stay the same (but remember, salaries went down by 21% to cause the decrease in competitiveness in the first place).

Competitiveness is determined by salary, and not the other way around. (Although it may seem like it because they're highly correlated)

 

[thamsenman]

Not necessarily... If med school gets less competitive, supply and demand has no effect since the number of doctors produced per year would remain constant. The quality would go down for sure though. If people demand higher quality, then salary would increase and med school would get more competitive. If people don't demand higher quality, then salary would stay the same (but remember, salaries went down by 21% to cause the decrease in competitiveness in the first place).

Competitiveness is determined by salary, and not the other way around. (Although it may seem like it because they're highly correlated)

Well I'm not sure that's strictly true. There are a lot of other things people go after when they apply to med school: prestige, feelings of inner importance, etc.

 

[EulerianCircuit]

According to the bls statistics http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm the order is: Petroleum > Computer > Nuclear > Aerospace > Non-computer Electonics > Chemical > Electrical > Materials > Biomedical > Mining > Industrial = Environmental = Civil = Marine = Mechanical > Agricultural.

 

[randombetch]

Well I'm not sure that's strictly true. There are a lot of other things people go after when they apply to med school: prestige, feelings of inner importance, etc.

Yes of course, but I was keeping those constant.

I guess competitiveness would be a function like C(Salary, Prestige, Feelings of Importance, Z) where Z is the catchall variable.

 

[thamsenman]

Yes of course, but I was keeping those constant.

I guess competitiveness would be a function like C(Salary, Prestige, Feelings of Importance, Z) where Z is the catchall variable.

Often, I'm sure in pediatric specialties or general pediatric work, the other factors >> costs and payoffs for practitioners...

reimbursements are usually pretty low, although we are having a crisis drawing people to those fields

 

[BBender716]

Yes of course, but I was keeping those constant.

I guess competitiveness would be a function like C(Salary, Prestige, Feelings of Importance, Z) where Z is the catchall variable.

And "Z" is why we have the field of economics!

 

[randombetch]

And "Z" is why we have the field of economics!

Care to elaborate?