Deep Thoughts (14): Socialized Medicine
This one ain’t mine, but damn is it good:
Socialized medicine…all the speed and efficiency of the government with all the compassion of the IRS
Sounds a lot like Canada and the UK, come to think of it…
The thing about socialized medicine is that it ultimately becomes a rationing system with the federal government holding the purse strings. The worst, and most destructive part, is that it rations on both the supply and demand ends. Government wouldn’t have to compete–as employer of workers and doctors, consumer of pharmaceuticals, and provider of both–since it’d be the only source either way. The only thing it would be concerned with is the bottom line; it’d spend as little as it could all around with little regard for quality or efficiency (those being primary products of competition). People, both healthcare workers and patients, would thus lack incentive for prudential use of resources and maintaining a high quality of care. It basically turns healthcare into a commons. And like all such situations, the end result is erosion and destruction. Fewer new drugs, lower quality doctors, and worse availability of both.
I sure wish you would write regarding where all the money is going. The amount of money we spend on health care in this country is staggering and should be more than sufficient to provide us with great healthcare. Where the heck is it going?
My own theory is that Doctors make so much money that they lose touch with the pay scale for the rest of us and therefore tend to pay paper pushers in their practices way to much money for the work that they are doing.
Comment by intellectimpure — June 8, 2006 @ 1:15 pm
don’t know about you but I’ve never actually been to a private practice (where the doctor owned and managed the business). Been to private hospitals, but that’s a different story.
Legal secretaries are similarly overpaid too, which does add some merit to your point.
Did you read ‘moving medicine into the free market’? I talked about one source of the waste a loong time ago, no idea where that post is and too lazy to look for it. Google’s got me indexed, just type that entire phrase (in quotes) and that’ll bring up the post.
Comment by IndianCowboy — June 8, 2006 @ 1:26 pm
I got news for you. Most plumbers make more than most doctors (around $50-60/hr, less if you count time on call for your patients).
Comment by Roy — June 8, 2006 @ 7:21 pm
few have the perceived status of a doctor though (honestly I”m friends with more plumber-types than doctor-types, so *shrug*)
Comment by Administrator — June 8, 2006 @ 10:49 pm
Re-reading that old piece on Doctors and Income and whatever I have to say that I do not come close to buying your arguement regarding pay as being the biggest factor in ’self interest.’ People do what they do for many, many reasons and the reasons are complex and convoluted. I think that your contact with the children of the elite has led you to some incorrect generalizations about people.
That being said, it is very possible that money IS the determining factor in the aspiring Doctors choices.
Comment by intellectimpure — June 9, 2006 @ 7:26 am
I am not so sure that money is the primary motivation for doctors either. I think that dermatology is one of the most difficult fields to get into now, not because of the money but because of the good working hours and the fact that it is quite rare to be on call for a dermatological emergency.
Comment by Mark — June 9, 2006 @ 11:47 am
[...] The basic problem of government healthcare is that no one feels the costs of their actions. Government isn’t held accountable for lack of access. Consumers aren’t held accountable for abuse of medical resources. And healthcare providers have no incentive either to enter the field or to maintain a high level of quality of care. This is your classic commons situation. [...]
Pingback by Socialized healthcare and The Road To Serfdom - Homeland Stupidity — June 9, 2006 @ 12:10 pm
Mark, Intellect, sorry if I seemed to claim that money was THE factor. But it’s definitely a VERY important factor. And in a sense it’s the one by which all others are judged.
It is a well known fact that applications to med school go up significantly during economic downturns and drop significantly in times of economic well being, though. So it’s obvious that at the population level, income is a significant effect.
Mark you mentioned some of the other factors, which are important to a broader look. I talk about it in
Although you got to remember that that combination of other factors (prestige, comfort, etc.) is generally indexed to wealth. Derm is very low in both stress/workload and income. Being a secretary at a not so busy office is also low in stress/workload, but not so high in income. But if the derm income was closer to the secretary income level, there’d be less reason to spend the 12 years in training/education and be a ‘gunner’ in med school.
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