atlasshrugged
Member
- Jul 12, 2012
- 149
- 21
- 16
With recent changes to healthcare, I've heard dozens of people act as if the doctors have a monopoly and that they only charge so much because us suckers are willing to pay it. When you see a doctor with a big paycheck, it's easy to assume that the reason healthcare is so expensive is because the doctor is overpaid. But I recently wondered how much of a bill actually goes to him or her. So I crunched the numbers.
If a surgeon (making $300,000 annually) works 250 days, he/she would be making $150 an hour. That still seems high until you look at it from the perspective of a single patient. If I were to have this surgeon operate on my heart (let's say a 4 hour surgery) that means only $600 go to the surgeon. I don't know about you, but I'll gladly give $600 to anyone with the knowledge to operate on my heart.
The real costs lie in things like administration, your own health insurance company, expensive supplies and machines, and malpractice insurance. It's sad that healthcare costs so much, but few of these costs are avoidable and virtually none are the result of greedy doctors charging more than they are worth. Anytime you visit the doctor, you are using the services of dozens of people (nurses, medical assistants, administration, engineers who design equipment, factories who assemble equipment, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, delivery of supplies, etc).
Perhaps we should be grateful that we live in a time when incredible surgeries and treatments are even possible rather than complaining about how expensive they are.
If a surgeon (making $300,000 annually) works 250 days, he/she would be making $150 an hour. That still seems high until you look at it from the perspective of a single patient. If I were to have this surgeon operate on my heart (let's say a 4 hour surgery) that means only $600 go to the surgeon. I don't know about you, but I'll gladly give $600 to anyone with the knowledge to operate on my heart.
The real costs lie in things like administration, your own health insurance company, expensive supplies and machines, and malpractice insurance. It's sad that healthcare costs so much, but few of these costs are avoidable and virtually none are the result of greedy doctors charging more than they are worth. Anytime you visit the doctor, you are using the services of dozens of people (nurses, medical assistants, administration, engineers who design equipment, factories who assemble equipment, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, delivery of supplies, etc).
Perhaps we should be grateful that we live in a time when incredible surgeries and treatments are even possible rather than complaining about how expensive they are.