Good grief... Maybe I just have the luxury of being the only pilot in my family (besides my dad) and being surrounded by medical, real estate, and finance people, so I understand a bit of the industry (it's a topic every time we all get together - immediate family includes 4 physicians, 2 LNP's, 2 R/N's, and a LRNA).
On the other side of the coin many of those medical related services are getting what they deserve. Being a doctor is not supposed to be about driving in a luxury car, flying a 182 on the weekend or vacationing on a luxury yacht. It is about diagonising and treating medical patients.
So, let me get this straight. YOU want to be able to have a nice new(er) BMW convertible, a cub to play around on, and vacation all over the world using your interline discounts, but the Doc shouldn't be entitled to the same?
I haven't met a pilot YET who didn't want those SAME things, yearn for the days of an average $100-120k a year 3-7 year F/O salary, and $200k+ year 7-15 CA salary, so they could have those pleasures in life (like they used to).
Pretty hypocritical.
Another sector that is going to get it are the greedy health insurance companies who look to decline coverage for a growing number of Americans while the MDs milk insurance for garaunteed payment.
OK, this one is hilarious... you obviously don't know ANYONE in the medical profession or know only the specialists (plastic surgeons, cardiovascular surgeons, etc) who are the ONLY ones making large money.
Did you know that, the average GP (General Practitioner) only makes about $120k a year PRE-tax, after clearing all their medical office expenses, including astronomical malpractice insurance?
Did you know that, on average, only 1 in 3 patients seen in a GP's office actually PAY their bill?
Did you know that, in order to generate 1 hour of medical billing, it costs 5-7 hours of office work for the various employees? Scheduling, check-in, nurse pre-workup, doc visit, check-out, chart entry, billing and insurance, billing and insurance follow-up, etc? 5-7 hours to generate 1 hour of billing time. The docs have to pay that before they pay themselves.
You are angry at the insurance companies; they are largely responsible for the ramp-up in the cost of medical care. The more they disallow things and pay only pennies on the dollar, the more the doctors will mark up the cost of medical care to ensure they can pay their employees.
Make sure you understand a situation before you rant about it.
Least we forget the pharmasuteicals (sp) who produce the medicines that cure the sick. Why is they keep looking for reasons to jack prices?
If you're going to discuss a topic intelligently, start with spelling the medical terminology correctly. I don't mean to be the spelling police, but come on, we're having a debate here. Precision is important.
Maybe that is why more sick people go without treatment, beacuse they simply can not afford the meds and despite what the phamasuticals want us to belive, the manufacturing of drugs has not greatly changed over the past couple of decades.
Do you have ANY clue what goes into research for a drug, and how much they have to write off when that research line has to be trashed?
SOME drugs are greatly overpriced, yes. But many are not. If you haven't noticed, the price of many drugs is directly correlated to the demand for a drug. THAT'S what you want to get aggravated about. Pharmaceutical companies DO tend to price gouge, and there's a reason they spend so much on marketing them.
Have you ever seen the pharmaceutical sales reps? WOW! They pick the hottest and most-presentable young ladies between 26 and 35 and send them to the doctors offices, buy the doctors dinners at the finest restaurants (I've been to a few with the LNP I dated), all methods they can think of to get the docs to push their particular med.
It's a huge business, and it does need SOME reigning in, but you cap it like Hillary is proposing, and drug makers will stop making all but their lowest-cost drugs in the U.S., sell their leading drugs in Canada and other countries, and the U.S. consumer will be SCREAMING for them and illegally getting the drugs over the border and paying more than ever, because they have to pay cash.
What goes around comes around, and it looks like the greed that has corrupted health care is about to get a nice big enema.
You better hope not, or watch health care become like other countries.
I fly Air Ambulance these days. Have you ever SEEN what medical care is like in, say, South America? Russia?
It's God-awful. Socialized medicine does NOT work. There's a REASON people come to the U.S. from all over the world.
Screw with that at your own peril.
