Reply #30: He's pretty pissed. [View All]

[knitter4democracy]

Don't get him started on a national health care plan unless you have a couple of hours and like to hear someone rant. ;) He's all for at least a single payer system, and he talks with the partners at the practice where he works about it fairly often. The serious Republican is even coming around--almost anything would be better than the system we have now.

He hates Pharma, too, and the insurance companies. He's disgusted by practices that make uninsured patients pay an extra yearly fee (happened to my aunt in California, and he was mad about it for days) instead of helping them pay for it. His practice doesn't take Medicaid, but that was because they looked into it and realized they couldn't afford it, the payouts are so low. He still feels bad about that, though, as he lost a couple of patients from residency who wanted to follow him here.

He likes what he does on a daily basis, but he avoids the drug reps like the plague and deals with insurance as little as possible (which is still more than he'd like). He works to keep meds as cheap as possible (generics first, then brand names), and he's developing a good patient base because of it.

You know, almost all of the young docs we know want a national health care plan. Young docs are making less than docs did even ten years ago right out of residency and have higher med school loans to pay back. They aren't as optimistic on making the big bucks, and they're sick of the crappy care they're seeing. There's hope, I think.