NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/sci/med/24319

Text File | 1993-01-23 | 2.8 KB | 64 lines

Newsgroups: sci.med
Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!bogus.sura.net!ukma!tulane!wpg!russ
From: [e-mail] (Russell Lawrence)
Subject: Re: Physician's incomes
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: WP Group
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 23:04:14 GMT
Lines: 52

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Mark Dalton):
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Junho Whang) writes:
>>  It's always very puzzling (if I assume a modicum of fairness),
>>why doctors always gripe about their salary?  According to the
>>vilage!  The argument of having to repay med school expenses don't hold
>>much water since total 4 year expenses run 100K at most, and many doctors
>>make easily that much in one year.
>
> Any doctors or med students feel free to update/correct me.
> But a neurosurgeon that I new was paying $80,000 per year in
> malpractice insurance.

Nice anecdote, but is it true?   It's surely not representative
of physicians as a whole.  I don't have the latest figures,
but Louisiana's "high-risk" professionals (ob-gyn specialists) paid
an average of $16,400 apiece for malpractice coverage in 1987, a
sum that was considered stratospheric by Louisiana physicians in
other fields.

> He was a fine surgeon, with a lot of
> experience.  He was grossing $200,000 /year.  After malpractice
> insurance and taxes.  He was making less then many atheletes, entertainers
> an most of all less than CEO's and upper "management".  All of
> whom don't pay malpractice insurance.

We know that the average US physician _nets_ 160K per annum, or
thereabouts, after deducting the cost of doing business.  Does
anybody have the latest figures on the average cost per physician
for malpractice insurance?  Last time I checked the figures
showed that all liability costs including the sums paid by
hospitals and clinics, represented roughly 1 percent of the total
US health care budget.

> This was a few (8 years ago) and he was in a specialized field.
>
> But when you consider the job that some physicians do, really think about
> cutting into another person.  Think of the responsibility involved.
>
> I think they are payed no more than they should be.

Not all physicians are surgeons or burdened with the task of making
critical life or death decisions.  Even for those who are, I'm not
convinced that money is the best salve for "stress" that's often
taken lightly after several years of practice.

Incidently, policeman and firemen, frequently make life or death
decisions and risk their lives in the process, yet for some
strange reason, they're not well-paid at all.  Perhaps we need
to re-arrange some of our priorities.

--
Russell Lawrence, WP Group, New Orleans [phone]
[e-mail]   uunet!wpg!russ