83% of u.s. Doctors consider quitting.

[Mr. Fechter]

83% of US doctors are considering quitting because of B.O.care.

Physician Attitudes Survey - June 2012 | Doctor Patient Medical Association

[Jim Craik]

I would be willing to bet that this is just not true.

83% of doctors will quit their jobs because there are now millions and millions more patients who will actually pay them?

After all, there are so many great jobs they could do instead of being a Doctor.....McDonald's, Ikea?

What a bunch of crap!

[Jim Rosenthal]

Bob, this is nonsense. I WORK in this business and it just is not true. I don't know where they got their information, but this survey is dead wrong. DOA. Or, as we say in the field, DRT- dead right there.

[Ian K]

Meh - look at the numbers.

83% of the doctors who responded consider quitting.
81% of the respondents are solo or small practice.
89% of the respondents are office based
11% of the respondents work in hospitals
Of the 16,227 surveys successfully faxed, only 699 (4.3%) actually replied. A larger sample would have been nice ...

Ian

[Doug Clark]

Doctor Patient Medical Association - SourceWatch

[Pat]

I think everyone is gotten too far into the weeds. It's probably true that 83% considered quitting. The operant word here is CONSIDERED. How many people ever considered quitting their jobs??? I think that's about a zillion.

All that said, here in Florida, a lot of doctors including my own are no longer taking Medicare patients and are opting to leave private practice to join private physician networks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/he...pagewanted=all

[Jeff Young]

Originally Posted by Doug68

Doctor Patient Medical Association - SourceWatch

Everyone should read this link.

There are other surveys showing US doctor support for single payer, or the public option.

[Jim Craik]

Originally Posted by Veek

I think everyone is gotten too far into the weeds. It's probably true that 83% considered quitting. The operant word here is CONSIDERED. How many people ever considered quitting their jobs??? I think that's about a zillion.

All that said, here in Florida, a lot of doctors including my own are no longer taking Medicare patients and are opting to leave private practice to join private physician networks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/he...pagewanted=all

Veek,

While it may be true that 83% of the respondents to this poll may have "considered" quiting, but who was the poll sent to and why was their such a low percent of responders.

It is also obvious that the folks running this poll have an agenda.

I would not be supprised if they obtained their "fax" numbers and E-mail addresses from the Tea Party rolls.

One other thought, who still uses fax machines?

[Mr. Fechter]

Oh my, these may be Conservatives!!! How tainted is that? Gee, they may be former Liberals who've had enough! I don't think you'll find many OWS members in that field.

Maybe a dozen famous Liberals said they'd leave the country if Bush were elected. I don't think one left. Let's see how many doctors leave if B.O.care is allowed to survive. I doubt there'll be as many young people willing to invest the many tens of thousands of dollars to become a highly trained doctor in a government bureaucracy.

[Mark]

I think you may find that people who want to be doctors, will go on to be doctors. That's like saying over here, we will never get anyone to be a nurse, because the hours are sucky, the pay is suckier and the system is run by government bureacracy. Still, we do have nurses and doctors and mechanics and farmers and fishermen and policmen and firemen and paramedics and and and and and. But all their jobs are shitty, pay badly and are fooked by bureaucrats if all the whiners are to be believed. What jobs are they going to get instead? Where is the Nirvana?

[Jim Craik]

Originally Posted by lonesomebob

Oh my, these may be Conservatives!!! How tainted is that? .

From past experiance with your posts, I would say very, very tainted.

[Mr. Fechter]

Originally Posted by Jim Craik

From past experiance with your posts, I would say very, very tainted.

"Last edited by Jim Craik; Today at 05:58 PM." Thanks for editing, jim. It made even less sense the first time you tried. ;~)

[GTOVER40]

hi im a long time member but have never posted i'm an indepedant (politically) doctor , work in a multispecialty practice. I've recently been bought out by a hospital corporation ,not my choice.The majority of American docs are now employed. I can fully understood a significant level of dissatisfaction The current legistation predicts that 150,000 docs will leave medicare. The fact that the number of covered individuals (not counting those whose employers chose to pay the "tax" and not get covered) will go up is unlikely to cover the 30% reduction in medicare payments that is planned. The option of working more, for 30 % less is at the very heart of the high level of dissatisfaction with the projected changes in healthcare

[Mark]

So tell me, what will you do instead? Simply shut up shop and go fishing? If you can afford to do that then great. Knock yourself out. I suspect that a great many doctors are not yet at that place in life where they will be happy to change career path or simply retire. Am I missing something?

[GTOVER40]

thats exactly the prob there are limited options for lateral move and most docs that can retire already have . its simply not the healthy direction for medicine to go when most docs are disgruntled

[Mr. Fechter]

So, Mark, we simply tell them to shove it if they don't like it. Charming, "what choice do you have, Comrade?"

[Jeff Young]

Originally Posted by EMURPHY

thats exactly the prob there are limited options for lateral move and most docs that can retire already have . its simply not the healthy direction for medicine to go when most docs are disgruntled

Thank you for the perspective from inside the profession.

Questions though:

1. There is no requirement in the law that you "work more" is there? Meaning, you don't have to take on new patients. Your employer may require that, but that isn't the government right? It is your employer.

2. Physician compensation in the US is generally much higher than in other similar countries. Moreover, specialists tend to earn incredibly high salaries while GPs languish. When you say you are faced with a 30% reduction in fees for services, are you a specialist or a GP? GPs tend to have fewer high dollar procedures subject to Medicare and while they are paid less, as I understand it will see less of a reduction in income. So their say $120k a year becomes $90k at worst.

For the specialist, their $500k a year becomes $350k.

Roughly speaking, which category are you in?

[Pat]

Perhaps everyone should try this simple test. Discuss Obamacare, Medicare/Medicaid and especially "Joint Commission oversight" with your physician immediately before he/she checks your prostate during your next exam. The "quality of the experience" versus prior visits might be a very good indicator.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by lonesomebob

So, Mark, we simply tell them to shove it if they don't like it. Charming, "what choice do you have, Comrade?"

I simply mean to suggest that we all have to suck up what is thrown at us. Long gone are the days of revolution. I hate to suggest that we are powerless in these things, but frankly that is what the vote is for. Elections are the only time we the people are even taken remotely seriously by those who make policy.

Guys stating that Doctors will quit? Do me a favour. Like I said, quit and do what?

Will your botty exam be less pleasant if the doctor is pissed at new reforms or regulations? Maybe? But frankly, if he is that self-focused as a doctor, he probably should have become something else instead? Aren't 'proper' doctors supposed to be following a vocation? Patient care is their primary motivation? No?

Also, as someone said above, 83% was quoted earlier in your linked survey. 83% of a serious minority that could even be bothered to reply! So I cannot be the only realist out there? Most realize that like it or hate, it will be what it will be, until a next election, when hopefully the current idiots get replaced by the next generation of idiots and round we go.

When exactly was any system created by governements, 100% acceptable to all those it effects? Or 100% efficient for that matter? I understand, that like our NHS, your current system aint great and these new proposals aint great either? Well there's a great big furkin surprize!

[Jim Rosenthal]

Doctors, like anyone else in any occupational group, like to complain all the time- about insurance companies, about patients, about hospitals, about the government, and about other doctors. We do a LOT of complaining about other doctors. Believe it or not.

Doctors tend to be politically conservative, which I am not. We have all considered leaving medicine at some point, and a few do, but most of us stick it out. Hardly anyone gets rich doing this job, but it IS quite rewarding sometimes, and no one wakes up at night wondering if what they do makes a difference. We KNOW it makes a difference.

From where I sit, most of us feel that Obamacare, if it is implemented, will probably make doctors' professional lives better, not worse. We hope it will result in better funding for and more physicians going into primary care (my specialty is considered a primary care specialty) because really what American medicine needs most is more primary care physicians and easier access to primary care for patients.

I think the survey cited by Bob is one of many- you can find surveys to support both viewpoints from physicians. Most of us are waiting to see how this plays out. In emergency medicine, which is what I do, we are cautiously optimistic that more of our patients will have insurance and that the number of people we treat who are "self-pay" (which usually means no pay) will decrease somewhat. We would like that. At the hospital where I work the most often, we get about eleven cents on the dollar or less. It is, however, in other respects a great place to work.