Sunday, October 25, 2009
Health care "reform": What about the specialists?
One of our competitors, the orthopedic implants manufacturer Biomet, has put together a nice video examining some of the arguments made by "progressive" health care reformers. It is worth your time:
2 Comments:
By 
JPMcT, at
Sun Oct 25, 05:15:00 PM:
I add for your interest the abstract from a recent Iowa State study on surgical workforce estimates for the US. (I can't link to this since it's a passworded site):
Objectives: To estimate the workforce needed by 2030 in 7 surgical specialties to serve a population of 364 million people and to quantify the cost associated with training additional surgeons.
Materials and Methods: A review of the certificates granted in otolaryngology, orthopedic surgery, thoracic surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, neurosurgery, urology, and general surgery was conducted. Using a population-based algorithm, we extended the results of Richard Cooper's pioneering work to these fields of surgery. The assumptions were unchanged physician to population ratio, 30 years in practice from completion of residency to retirement, and no revision of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and therefore no additional residency positions offered. Per resident expenses were estimated annually at $80,000, including salaries, benefits, and other direct medical education costs.
Results/Conclusions: (1) There will not be enough surgeons in the 7 surgical specialties studied. (2) We will have to train more than 100,000 surgeons by 2030 to maintain access for our citizens at an annual cost of almost $2 Billion and total cost of about $37 billion. (3) To train the extra needed surgical workforce will cost an additional $10 Billion. (4) To do this, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 must be revised to permit more residents to be trained in the United States or other alternatives explored
As the tort lawyers are fond of saying: RES IPSA LOQUITUR.
Heh, heh....Go ahead...make my day...cut my Medicare reimbursement by 40% over the next two years. Don't do anything about tort reform. Add another 30 million people to the government insurance rolls and force the companies that DO pay you something to go out of business.
Just don't call me in the middle of the night when your aneurysm is leaking and you need an experienced vascular surgeon...because I will be long gone!!!
By SR, at
Mon Oct 26, 02:07:00 AM:
Heh Heh no problem, Interventional Radiologists will be stenting these. No, wait, there won't be any of them left either. All the x-rays will be read by NightHawk docs in Bangledesh.
