Med School Gets Cheaper for Some

Reader Comments
Back to blog

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

butt of MI 2:59PM April 27, 2011

I agree with improving education costs, but somehow people who are not in medicine think that they can judge our work ethic is ridiculous. I remember a politician who really didn't think medicine was all that until she worked 1 full day with a bunch of us. Then she shut her mouth. Our job is way harder than some entitlement peons out there can imagine.
Fix malpractice. Eliminate NON-economic damages. Better yet, you can't sue unless you are a long-term dependent. Greedy little granddaughters can't file claims on a dead 80 year old woman because of the emotional loss. She's just trying to get out of working for the rest of her life. Scams run by lawyers and American culture fuels it.
You want to cap physician earnings. Fine maybe at 500K. I disagree with those doctors out there who run mills and maybe spend like 2 minutes with each patient. That's just poor form. I don't want that. But don't take away from the hardworkers who spend nearly 14 hours per day in clinics/hospitals. They earned it just like business owners. The legislation in this area will be tricky.
Eliminate medical school loans upon graduation. You need loans to force people to finish the training, but then take it all away after Match Day.
Remember American public, doctors cost maybe around 10% of the medical costs in this country. Pretty low in my opinion compared to some companies. It's how politics, lawyers, insurance companies, and many others work as middlemen that ruins healthcare. When they charge you 300, they are giving us 25. Did you ever try to figure out where the rest of that goes? It's certainly not just the light bulbs. Get some education and then point fingers.
And why would somebody NOT want doctors to set the licensure standard? I guess some of these people have qualified training to judge how long a doctor should be trained for.

Gary of IL 4:36PM June 30, 2008

Malpractice rates of tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars per year makes medical school tuition look like loose change. The litiginous society we live in makes practice of defensive medicine rampant and drives up costs enormously and many practice medicine in a way not to get sued.
Significantly lower malpractice premiums could pay most doctors tuition bills off in a couple of years.

of MN 12:36PM June 19, 2008

This is not saying that specialists will NOT get top dollar, it is simply saying that if tuition is less of a burden then everyone graduating from medical school won't HAVE to specialize just to pay the bills...jeez, I hope you aren't a doctor.

of 11:35PM June 18, 2008

If you don't pay specialists top dollar the best and brightest will never enter these fields. Medicine is a very challenging field and should be compensated accordingly. We don't want average students in these fields it is hard enough for those at the top of thier class.

of MN 2:49AM June 08, 2008

Well, this is a good thing. Because America SHOULD have universal care like other sensible nations are achieving via their governments. Step one for that (aside from taming our "underwriting profit" culture) is growing a new crop of primary care physicians who can afford to practice for far less than a quarter million a year.
One way you do that is by scholarshipping their training so they DON'T emerge from school carrying a mountain of debt. Another way you do that is by fast-tracking some of them with a little LESS training requirements for licensure.
Say what? Less training and hoops? Yes. Otherwise you will have existing doctors keeping the hurdles too high to restrict competition, a permanent shortage of doctors, and many patients having to settle for a nurse practitioner at a Minute Clinic sort of place (with the mother corporation walking off with enormous profits). You will also have Republicans screaming that we CANNOT do universal care because we don't have the doctors. Both are ridiculous.
Lower some standards, get more salaried doctors, and get on with treating the primary care patients.

Daniel David of NM 11:23PM May 30, 2008