| Ok, apologies for a slightly irritated tone, but this touched a nerve. Of course the author is an MD who doesn’t mention the extremely high salaries paid to physicians in this country, instead acting like they’re somehow victims of high healthcare costs rather than the primary beneficiaries: > Perhaps the demoralization of professionals, the conflicted consciences of many executives, and the anger of the public represent potential political energy that, with proper leadership, can become kinetic. > First, health care professionals in all disciplines need to become noisier about the conflict between unchecked greed and the duty to heal. Extortionate drug prices, exploitation of market consolidation, coding games, excessive executive compensation, and promulgation of unnecessary care ought not to be met with silence. Silence is assent. The median salary for a specialist physician in the US is $346k. Orthopedic surgeons clear north of half a million on average. As a result, “physician” is the most common profession profession among the richest 1%. Note that this didn’t happen by accident. Groups like the AMA lobby for policies that keep supply low and salaries high. The one time that legislation threatened to reduce physician salaries, Congress passed the infamous “doc fix” Mind you, residency sucks and many doctors are wonderful, so I mostly don’t begrudge them their pay. But if you’re complaining about the cost of healthcare and mention literally every group except the one you belong to, perhaps you’re being the slightest bit disingenuous. As for the author, he earned $889,484 back in 2009 running a nonprofit. Does that “unchecked greed” cause him to have a “conflicted conscience,” I wonder? Sources:
https://www.nshss.org/blog/you-want-to-be-a-doctor-here-is-t...
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/16/356176018/the-...
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