Not true @ezraklein. Doctors are not the enemy to “fight.” We aren’t a “problem.” And patients trust us because we devote 7+ years to rigorous, exhausting training and we actually take care of them. We provide invaluable services. Unlike their insurance company.
Uwe Reinhardt wrote: “If we...cut that take-home pay [of all physicians] by, say, 20%, we would reduce total national health spending by only 2% in return for a wholly demoralized medical profession to which we so often look to save our lives.”forbes.com/sites/physicia…
Uwe Reinhardt: Physicians are the central decision makers in health care. A superior strategy might be to pay them very well for helping us reduce unwarranted health spending elsewhere.”
Instead of waging war on physician and treating us like a problem, perhaps journalists and health policy folks could collaborate with us to reduce wasteful healthcare spending. Because the we have a lot of ideas.
The coverage of surprise billing legislation has been sloppy. Articles reference dark money and lobbies and the same two experts over and over again but never actually interview physicians who have opinions and expertise. Why is that?
The coverage has been biased. It is also wrong. Fortunately grassroots physician advocacy made Congress pause to better understand the issues.
But yes, you should be aware, physicians aren’t going to just sit around silently any longer. The health policy “experts” and the perverse incentives/disincentives and loopholes granted to corporations is what is driving up costs. It’s not the physicians and it’s not our comp.
