Comments about ‘Death of the Family Practice’

Big business is destroying this country and polluting our society with greed. Buy local, support your neighbor.

is always the reason behind anything. But how much is enough? I know family practice doctors who have more than enough to "pay the bills". If you are a doctor in the US, you make big bucks off of peoples' illnesses, period. Is there such a thing as a poor doctor?

doctors drive nice cars.

Its not big business it's the government that is causing the problems. Wait till the libs get ahold of health care, that will be a real mess

Why is it wrong for someone who dedicated their youth to get an education to finally get some payback? There has to be an incentive for doctors to become doctors. The doctors aren't to blame for the cost of medicine in America. It's the lawyers, pharmaceuticals, and insurance companies. That is where the expense is, not the doctors pockets.

Doctors are just too greedy. They are leaving family practice and setting up imaging and surgery centers so they can skim profitable services away from our hospitals and make more money. Its greed. They consider themselves businessmen, not doctors. And that is the problem.

The America I was always taught about could make anything happen if we came together and made a choice. We just need to make a choice and everything will be ok. I don't care if its public, private mixed or none at all...just make a choice and let's move on with our lives!

"If you are a doctor in the US, you make big bucks off of peoples' illnesses, period."

If you are a car mechanic in the US, you make big bucks off of broken cars, period.

If you are a baker in the US, you make big bucks off of peoples hunger, period.

If you are a plumber in the US, you make big bucks off of peoples broken pipes, period.

If you are a contractor in the US, you make big bucks off of peoples homelessness, period.

Tell me again what your point was?

Health Care is a commodity; created and delivered by people. It is NOT a right. Get government out. Keep government out. Period.

I read this story with a great deal of interest because my own father was once a family physician. To answer the post questioning whether there were poor doctors, I have one for you. Consider this: the biggest expense was malpractice insurance, which typically starts at six figures per year. How many office visits do you need to cover 100,000? If an office visit costs 50 dollars, you need to see 2000 patients that year. That accounts for seven per day with a 290 day work year. (Weekends off, which doesn't happen.) So your first seven patients in the door pay malpractice. Then you have your staff. Nurse:60,000, Receptionist:30000, Tech:15000. There's your first fourteen patients. Equipment/space rental or payments: 160,000, so now you're up to 26 patients. At just five minutes per patient, that eats up a five hour chunk of your workday. Most docs spend more time. Add another 20000 per year to pay med school bills. Now you gotta worry about a place to live, etc. Oh and to top it off, medicare only pays about 60% of that office visit. Dad is now an ER doctor

Look at it this way. You're nearly 30. you've just spent the last decade plus making no money and now you have 200,000 in debt (not home debt mind you).

You have a decision to make--earn 140,000 per year working 60 hour weeks or make 300,000 per year also working 60 hour weeks off (with a couple more years investment).

What would you choose?

My father is a pediatrician and growing up people would tell me "you're rich" when they heard my dad was a doctor. To which I replied, "how come I live in your neighborhood, then?"

When you think rich doctors who aren't under financial pressure, you're thinking of the specialists.

He talked politics with his patients? No wonder he went under.
I had a dentist pull that one on me. Ranting about a prominent politician he didn't like.
I wasn't about to disagree with him while he was working on my teeth, but that was the last time I ever went to see that particular dentist.

With the loss of these experienced doctors who practice medicine and health care is the death rattle of health care in america. The real dream of good health care is what these private practitioners provide.

With corporate health care you don't receive health care, you get inept care.

My recent encounter with corporate health care has proven to me that these organizations do not practice medicine. I have no trust or faith in this system and its no wonder they are inundated with malpractice law suits. They are doctors by degree only who don't trust each other or the diagnosis of other doctors. You end up in a batter of unneeded test and procedures that are still inconclusive for these brain dead idiots working their.

To get health care in corporate medicine you, the patient, must pre-diagnose your illness so they put you in the line that covers that malady. Then as each "specialist" takes their turn in telling you that you are in the wrong line you have to start over, and bill you for being in the wrong line.

The loss of these doctors is a major blow to what health care is about.

People! I am a Physicians Assistant for over 25 years and YOU have NO Ideal what MD'S go through!First of all, the Education cost a FORTUNE! It takes Many years of Education. Then the MD'S hours are long and hard. Most MD'S go days with out sleep or very little sleep.. Doctors earn every penny they get! I know Doctors who do not drive big fancy cars because it takes MANY years to pay back the grants!Not to mention the stress of caring for there patients... We need More Americans to become MD'S also.. We are getting to MANY quacks from other Countries.. The greedy MD'S are plastic Surgeons.. But! you would need them if you were ever disfigured!America is becoming like Russia every year where they are taking more and more control away from the American People!Do not judge the Doctors until you become one yourself!

The scary facts are that: for decades medical school costs have skyrocketed; medicare has also disproportionately increased reimbursements for proceedures and specialists; and medical school staff has been dissuading students from entering primary care (a good article on cnn's webpage today about that).

All of this has been pushing doctors away from entering primary care. This is unsustainable.

Primary care physicians save the government and the medical system money! (see the cnn article).

We can continue forward without change at our own peril.

Once there are no more Family Physicians, Pediatricians, Internists, or OBs, the only alternative will be urgent care, no care, or the ER.

How much do you think a person should be paid if they do the following?

1. Get straight As through high school
2. Get an A average in college, majoring in a biological science and having 2 minors.
3. Pay a few hundred dollars and travel costs just for the "luxury" of interviewing at multiple medical schools?
4. Take out 200K or more in loans for medical school costs.
5. 2 years of medical school with probably 8-9 hours of school daily and another 5 hours studying.
6. 2 years of medical school with 80 hour work weeks (in addition to continued studying after work).
7. 3 years of 80 hour work weeks (with studying afterward), working 6-7 days a week.
8. A lifetime making decisions that often impact a person's life (or death) every day (what happens if a plumber installs the wrong pipe--how often does a shoe store salesman get sued for malpractice?)

I promise you that the luxurious cars that the vast majority of Family Medicine doctors are driving are Honda Accords--whoa, go crazy now. I think that they deserve every penny they get and more.

The best students will not be going into medicine if the Obama healthcare plan passes. What smart kid wants to spend 12 years in school just to get out and work for the government when they can go to the trade tech for two years and make double the money.

Government involvement in our lives is too big. We must get our representatives to actually represent us or it is all over.
I am a patient of Dr Taylor Jeppson. This man has been my primary doctor since he started his practice. Whatever his income is matters not to me. This man saved my life after an accidental fall and blood clots in my lungs. I dread the day he retires.

It amazes me at the ignorance of people that post comments. Even after supposedly reading the article do you not understand??? You have NO CLUE what it takes to become a doctor. Then after the hundreds of thousands of dollars paid for education, and countless years of study and late nights, what do you have to look forward to? More investment in equipment, offices, help, malpractice insurance, and other expenses. It is no wonder we will be facing this crisis very soon, and by reading the out of touch comments for this article, it seems alot of people don't care.

The medical community has known about the physician shortage in Utah for years. And what does the UofU Medical School do? they have the highest non-resident enrollment rate in the US (excluding Idaho residents). They are more concerned about diversity and thus they educate out-of-staters which then leave the state. That's the first point.

Second point, the Utah Medical Education Council and our legislators could fix that by providing grants to Utah residents who are forced to leave the state for medical school. If they return, no payback. If they don't return, the grant turns into a loan. Real easy. But our legislators won't. Thus the huge problem on the horizon for citizens of Utah.

It is so completely sad to read the populist, marxist drivel on these boards.

We attack doctors for wanting nice things in life. Who among you has gone to 10 years of intense college after highschool? And I mean intense. I work daily in public education and let me assure you an EeD in education is not the same as a PhD in medicine. My sister in law is getting her masters in education. She will have it in two years of doing distance learning courses two nights a week. I applaud her but don't want to even begin comparing the two.

You attack America and everything we stand for. I suppose you want the medical system out of Canada. Has that not been exposed enough. You live in this daydream world where anyone who drives a nice car is evil, takes a vacation or lives in a big house is evil. Why? Because you don't? Did you put in the time and effort to make yourself that valuable to other people? No? Didn't think so.

The world you dream of has been lived. It's called the Soviet Union. Life expectancy is still around 50 years!