Earnings and Labor Supply of U.S. Physicians | Hacker News Reader

Earnings and Labor Supply of U.S. Physicians

nber.org

8 pointsbookofjoe14 comments

“A lot of students go into medicine because they want to help patients,”

From my experience, this hasn't been too true but thats ok because becoming a doctor is a very hard path and they deserve to make money. Although, i am concerned because there seems to be a doctor shortage and economics dictate that doctors can make much more money by opening their own clinics and ferrying patients in and out (i.e treating symptoms as quickly as possible with medications or surgery) and it seems like a lot of problems in modern society have deeper root causes.

> Entry restrictions may drive physician shortages, especially in rural areas, while student debt allegedly leads doctors to choose highly compensated specialties over primary care.

Accurate. Primary Physician shortage is very real outside of major urban areas. And as it turns out, the vast land of America is largely rural or suburban.

American Medical Association needs to increase intake or the association needs to be banned for "national security" reasons.

The AMA has no real control over intake. The limiting factor is the funding for residency slots. The AMA has been lobbying Congress to increase that.

https://savegme.org/

The government has no authority to ban private membership organizations.

I really hope doctors and a lot of the “crap” involved in the healthcare system is automated away.

Why do I need to wait two weeks to see a dude to say you need to see a specialist? That’s how it is today in 2023.

I’d love to have only medical experts and AI or some other way to get care NOW so I don’t need to shift my whole life around.

How often are you waiting to two weeks to see your primary care doctor? I’ve never had an issue getting an appointment the same week, if not the next day. I agree that wait times for specialists can be excessive.

Do you live in a city? I’m in SF area and most single practice type clincs don’t seem to be taking new patients.

My options are to go to a private equity booster commercial building that houses tens of doctors, which is honestly feels like I’m going to a Walmart. It’s impersonal. They don’t give a shit about me. The staff is rude. Appointments are still hard to get.

Why deal with that? If this is the situation I’d rather deal with an automated but personalized system.

Actually I’m working on such a system. I hope it works out.

I’ve also dealt with a misdiagnosis as a kid that resulted in loss of full range motion. I can walk now but I’ve got hip and mild spine alignment issues. I’m salty about it. I’m not the only one to suffer something like that. It’s not fair either.

Sorry. Many issues. I’m not a fan of doctors or the medical field as it is today. They’re just men and they make mistakes. They need to be replaced with systems that are far more personal, accurate, and actually preventative. Something you can keep as your lifelong medical assistant.

It's extremely geographic and even health system dependent. A non-urgent primary care visit is at minimum 60 days out for me, usually well beyond 90. Urgent stuff of course gets seen much quicker, but even moderately urgent things can be a few days to a week wait.

This is pretty common for most of my peers in the area. My last place of residence I could be seen same or next day most of the time, but I also hear it's slowly getting worse there as well. It's going to get really ugly in the rural areas, especially for those on Medicare, but everyone is going to be noticing the shortages pretty soon unless you can afford concierge level care or happen to live in a few medical hotspot regions.

My primary care in a c tier american city usually takes over 1 month to schedule an apt. Its been as bad as 2.5 months.

What even is the point?

The only thing they do for me is gatekeep medications that Ive been on since I was a child. Its a joke.

Same, doing so would greatly expand healthcare for the most vulnerable.

>How much money do doctors really make and why is it such a lot?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/04/doctor-pa...

https://archive.ph/g3YkT

First paragraph of the article:

>The average U.S. physician earns $350,000 a year. Top doctors pull in 10 times that.

Skimming the article it appears to say dermatologists is the specialty with the best payoff to investment ratio?

I know someone who is an emergency room doctor and they would joke a dermatologist has the best work life balance because an urgent/emergency skin condition is rare.

Yes, in med school we referred to this as "an acute itch crisis"

They call it the ROAD to happiness. Radiology, ophthalmology, anesthesia, dermatology.

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