>>The average salary for a family physician is 135,000/yr. That means that many make less as well as there are some who make more. For the investment in the education and training required, that's not very much.
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>>You're right, they had a huge investment in education (8+ years), they likely had huge school loans to pay off, and they face stressful life and death situations every day with little or no margin for error. We make a mistake, even a big mistake...ok, we get slapped around....but if they make a mistake, the consequences are much more severe.
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>>Which is why they have a right to every penny they earn, and shouldn't be economically enslaved by the govt
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>You're a parent.You're making those decisions every day.
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>Here's an article about those thrifty medics doing their best for you.
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>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8137085.stm

It's hard to get really upset over that. When I consider the article on the NHS hospital that was so bad, I'd rather deal with this. There are a couple of issues that should be resolved, true, such as the excessive prescriptions and unecessary home nurse visits for example. But as for the abdominal ultrasounds, bone density studies, and urine-flow studies to look for prostate problems, I won't complain about that. Detecting prostrate cancer and low bone density early is much more cost effective than hip surgery or prostrate cancer treatment down the road if they were allowed to escalate. Some of those tests should be standard in the elderly just like pap smears for women to detect cancerous cells. I think I would much rather send my 72 year old mom to that hospital for treatment than to many of the non-profit hospitals out there. Also, note the comment in the article: 'Patients with expensive private insurance have long expected such standards.' Somehow it became ok to 'ration' healthcare and accept a lower standard of care for government sponsored healthcare in order to save money. Also, I don't necessarily agree with the hospital studies I've read recently. They don't provide a link for the study they reference but I'd be very interested to know what the health indicators are. For example, I've been in the hospital in a couple of countries in Europe . It has been quite some time, but back then, well, I won't call the care bad, but it was definitely not what we are used to here. I know some folks who were hospitalized in Europe and came home afterwards and received tests that detected problems that were not addressed there. It happens. Sometimes the tests can save your life. Probably the majority of the time they may be unecessary because they came back negative, but for those whose came back positive, they were definitely necessary. The issue is yes, the cost. But the issue of cost is such a HUGE deal not because of too many tests but because of doctors who send in for payment to Medicare for tests that were never performed. That is a huge problem and that is where most of the money gets wasted. It also wouldn't be so critical if we didn't have the biggest deficit that we can never recover from right now. So I guess everyone will have to ration medical care unless you are rich and can afford it on your own. I still think we should call in the Swedes....