March 27th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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My column in Sunday’s Greenville News.
‘Medical education shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.’
I was talking to a young man who is starting medical school this fall. His tuition at one of South Carolina’s newer schools will be $40,000 per year. That’s admittedly on the high end. On the low end, it runs a paltry $33,000 per year. And this is all after college, of course. He and others like him are taking out loans to the tune of $240,000 to pay for their medical educations. Another young woman I recently met is in residency and her loan payments are around $2000 per month.
Thinking back on my own medical education, it seems my tuition was around $5000 per year. But then, what with all the Saber Toothed Tigers, Neanderthals and stone surgical tools, things were simpler.. These days, I don’t know how students will do it.
The thing is, American healthcare is expensive. But so is medical education. As we embark on this century, what are the odds that physicians with $240,000 loans for medical school will be able to offer inexpensive care? What are the odds they will enter low-paying specialties? They might be interested in charity care at first, but when the first loan payments come due all the good intentions in the world won’t change the fact that lenders want their money back. Likewise, it won’t change the hard reality that it will be extremely hard for these young physicians to pay for their student loans, buy a house, have a practice (pay malpractice) and raise a family; at least without making a large amount of money in their practices. And then there’s this striking (but seldom mentioned) fact: student loans are non-bankruptable. Student loans are friends for life, or until payed off. Whichever comes first. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
March 17th, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Gather round boys and girls. Today’s lesson is on “risk pools.”
Before you pull out your iPhone to ward off the boredom you assume will come, know this: the concept of risk pools is at the heart of today’s healthcare reform debate.
To understand risk pools, you first have to understand the basic concept of insurance. Insurance is something you buy in case something happens. The more people buying the same type of insurance, the less risk the insurer faces that it will have to pay out for that aforementioned “something.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Medical Writer's Musings on Medicine and Health Care*
March 10th, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Today the Commonwealth Fund came out with a chart that it says is a “grim reminder” of what happens when health care doesn’t get reformed.
If only we had listened to Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter. We would have saved tens of trillions of dollars in health care spending.
Click to enlarge Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
March 5th, 2010 by BobDoherty in Announcements, Better Health Network, Health Policy
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Last week, I was honored to learn that the ACP Advocate blog was selected by voters in a national competition as the Best Health Policy/Ethics blog of 2009. Yesterday, ACP issued a news release announcing the award, in which I am quoted as saying that the blog “seeks to inform and entertain readers and to elicit thoughtful commentary from across the political spectrum, not just from ACP members but from others with an interest in health policy.”
Awards and recognition are nice, but what I enjoy most is making readers aware of interesting ideas, studies, and commentary that otherwise might not have come to your attention. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
February 26th, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Opinion
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$2600.
$544.
Look carefully at those two numbers. The first is the sum of three bills I received for my husband’s day-after-Christmas visit to the emergency room for unusual dizziness. A CT and EKG ruled out a stroke or heart attack. Diagnosis? Vertigo.
(Note: both figures will likely be much higher once all the bills come in, but I needed a blog post so I’m going with what I’ve got now).
Now look at the second figure. That’s what I have to pay after the discounts my insurance company has negotiated with the hospital and radiologists. Note: there are no payments from the insurance company in there because we had not yet met our deductible. These are just the discounts. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Medical Writer's Musings on Medicine and Health Care*
