Too many burdens to make doctoring worthwhile

April 29, 2011 — Re: Remapping Debate’s series on the growing shortage of doctors, and the possibility of using nurses or foreign MDs to fill the gap.

I believe there should have been a fourth part to this series…that being the fact that it has become increasingly difficult if not impossible for a person to justify the incredible expense of becoming a physician. Not only the financial expense, but also the personal expense. One must sacrifice a decade of their life to become a doctor. And once they do get there, the government continually tries to manipulate how much they will be allowed to make through medicare reimbursements.

Many don’t understand that all reimbursements are based on the medicare rate. If Medicare drops their rate, guess what…so does Aetna, Humana, and all the other insurance companies. How on earth is one supposed to be able to operate a business when they don’t know from month to month what they will be “allowed” to make? I can’t think of one other profession that is subject to that.

Medicare is going to be broke within a few years. The only way the government seems to think they can fix it is by taking it away from the doctors. I believe the average medical student now graduates with about $300,000 of debt. Add to that the opportunity cost of not working through four years of medical school and up to eight or nine years of residency (residents barely make enough to cover living expenses). Most will never make up the difference.

My husband is a surgeon, and there is absolutely no way I would ever let our children become doctors. Most doctors I know feel the same way. The price has become too great, and the payoff too small. Yes we are going to have a huge shortage of physicians in the near future. If I had my way and we could afford it, my husband would be one of the many getting ready to retire.

— Kim Newton (Spring, Texas)