A Medical Mess This Way Cometh

01 Dec, 2008 by Melissa Clouthier

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This post could be obscenely long, there are so many potential problems in the health care field. I’m going to try to make this brief and concise.

There are about to be many more old people than people to care for them. Gen X is about half the size of the Boomers. The Boomers are going to need more care. And it’s expensive. Oh, and Medicare Advantage Medicare costs more than traditional Medicare. Doesn’t everyone want an advantage?

Doctors are leaving hospital care of due to time, stress, and liability. Medicare does not pay more for complicated, time-consuming and probably-going-to-die-anyway patients.

Doctor-hood doesn’t carry the glamor it once did. Smart people are going into other professions.

Doctors feel the pressure to deliver and it’s going to get worse if Obama has his way. (It would with McCain, too.)

This is a short list. The aging population-increased medical costs-decreased pay-fewer doctors complex is not pretty. In addition, the doctors who continue practicing, are seeing their own quality of life diminish.

To continue practicing but have fun doing it, doctors seek out cash-based specialties like dermatology and plastic surgery. Internal medicine just stinks. America will end up being like Great Britain: importing doctors from third world countries. I’m not sure if that’s a bad or good thing.

Cross-posted at Dr. Melissa Clouthier