The success of health reform hinges on hiring 30,000 primary care doctors by 2015, says the Washington Post. It
goes on to say that doctors will make more money if they specialize. For instance, a radiologist will receive $193
from Medicare reimbursements per hour whereas a primary care doctor will receive $101.At the same time, these
doctors come out of training owing approximately $200,000 in educational costs, so it is no wonder they specialize.
With Obama pushing more than 30 million people into the government paid healthcare, there will be a need for
more physicians. Everybody agrees on that, right? Well, not so fast. First of all, if there are still more doctors
specializing to make more money, there will be less primary care docs. So, with the low number still evident,
Obama will probably want to reduce the qualifications for physicians to obtain a primary care licenses; hence, more foreign born and educated docs arrive on our shores to give inferior medicine. It will be only a game of numbers,
not adequate care.
Now to the nitty gritty. Primary care doctors are trained superficially in all aspects of medicine. They will know a
little of everything, but not a lot about a lot. Essentially, they are the jack of all trades and masters of none. This is not to belittle primary care physicians. It is only a statement of fact. They can not be trained to know everything or else they would never be out of training. In some specialities, such as Orthopedic Surgery, the major text book,
Campbell's Orthopedics, is more than 4 volumes large, each volume contains over 1000 pages. They are filled with
the most up-to-date information about the common orthopedic conditions, not the uncommon. There are a
multitude of text books dealing with specific treatments and surgeries, all of which can and will change almost
every year. No one physicians can know it all. That is why there are specialties and sub-specialties.
Primary physicians are not trained extensively in orthopedics, internal medicine, urology, gynecology, dermatology, endocrinology, general surgery, hematology, oncology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, gastro-enterology,
pathology, pulmonology, neurology, or neurosurgery. It is impossible for these docs to treat everything like Obama would have them do so, yet, there are non-medical individuals who, despite their complete and utter ignorance of
the facts, continue to spout the need for primary physicians and less specialists.
They have no idea, no clue, no evidence that can possibly lead them to their conclusions except one fact:
PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS ARE LESS COSTLY THAN SPECIALISTS.
The bottom line of it all is cost. Reducing costs will solve everything except one thing:
ALL HEALTH CARE WILL SUFFER, BE RATIONED, AND WILL BECOME INADEQUATE
THERE ARE BETTER WAYS. MANY PEOPLE KNOW IT, BUT IT'S THE POLITICIANS WHO ARE
STANDING IN THE WAY WITH THEIR ERASURES AND CALCULATORS.
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