How would a doctors/nurses pay be effected because of health care reform?
andyjs2378 asked:
I am wondering if doctors and nurses will be making big money because of the health care reform or will they loose what they used to get paid?
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I am wondering if doctors and nurses will be making big money because of the health care reform or will they loose what they used to get paid?
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The health care plan seeks the removal of HMOs because Obama believes that HMOs are making too much money. So theoretically, doctors and nurses would be under the sole contract of the hospital, therefore it really depends on what the new contract with them is going to be.
Health care reform as caused big issues. Since the recent economy change. Medicare/medicaid has done some revamping of the budget. This has kick a lot of people who were on medicaid off. Medicare has made cutbacks in what they will pay for and will not pay for. The health care facilities have been cut back on their budget, due to less funding from medicare/medicaid. This has caused budget cuts, which are passed on to health care workers which see the difference in their paychecks, which makes it harder for them to pay their bills and buy grocery’s. These cutback’s are noticeable in the care the patient receives do to less workers.. Doctors are denying surgery’s that are necessary due to non approval from medicaid/medicare. People who need medical treatment to stay alive are being turned away because they are on medicaid/medicare. Eventually health care reform will help some but right now due to all the cutbacks it is doing more harm than good. With health care reform; you will not have as many choice’s to make because these choice’s will be made for you. The whole idea of health care reform is great, but the proposed plan will leave some people falling through the cracks without the medical assistance they need.
There’s no overall answer, with both the current and proposed systems so byzantine that nobody really understands it all. In emergency medicine, I imagine I’ll get some payment for that 10% or so whom I currently treat without reimbursement, and I expect Uncle Sam will use that as an excuse to lower Medicare payments as part of the futile attempt at cost savings. Considering that governmental reimbursement rates change every year anyway, I doubt it’s going to make a lot of difference one way or the other.
Nurses salaries probably won’t change much. With the exception of some charge nurses (usually BSRNs) and CNPs, most of them already make around the median American salary… about 40-45k.
Docs on the other hand… that’s a whole different ball game. People already have this misconception that Doctors rake in so much money that they don’t know what to do with it beyond buy big houses and fancy cars. That’s really hasn’t been true for about 20-25 years. Things have changed. Doctor’s pay probably won’t experience any major cut backs at first (but who really knows with the way our Congress and President do business) but more than likely, they will experience a pay decrease.
Doctors are professionals that go through extremely competitive education programs and spend 10-20 years in training depending on how far they want to specialize. As someone in the midst of that training right now, the higher than average compensation obviously isn’t the reason I’ve decided to pursue a career as a doctor, but it certainly helps. As long as people look at their doctors though and see them as being better off than themselves and the government and media continue to propagate the idea that its true and we should be upset about it… Doctor’s salaries are going to be at risk of falling.
I mean, the government could stop mandating that Emergency Departments and urgent care centers render care at a financial loss to people, regardless of their ability or desire to pay;
The government could stop allowing the court systems to function as a legally sanctioned lottery system and bully. Undefinable and qualitative terms such as “pain and suffering” and “intangible damages” could be capped since if their incidence is really true, there would be no legitimate way to compensate them anyways (and Doctors never pay the bills, they just lose their jobs because after their insurance company paid the bill, they are either no longer eligible for or can no longer afford their insurance because their premiums shot up to a greater level than their salary);
The government could allow insurance companies to compete across state boundaries like every other legal business industry in the country is allowed to do.
The government could face the reality that health care is a business commodity and scarce resource, like every other object with an economic value. Free (or significantly reduced in price, which is what national health care actually looks like. its never carte blanche free. remember fuel rationing and price fixing in the 70s) does not equal quality or availability.
The short answer: It doesn’t look good.