<p>Physician income is mostly about supply and demand, not about intellect or years of training or difficulty of the job. If the US trained enough doctors, average income would drop. If there was an over-supply (as for lawyers and and PhDs in English), incomes would plummet.</p>
<p>“I do not know any Docs making $400K plus or even 200K for that matter. No one complains about lawyers making millions off one case. They go to school for three years instaed of the eight plus years of training for Physicians.”</p>
<p>As Kluge can tell you, lawyers are worth it, they need to buy new sneakers every once and while - chasing ambulances wears down the tread.</p>
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Actually people complain about the miniscule percentage of plaintiff’s lawyers who do that all the time. The fact that to win that kind of award a lawyer has to invest tens - or hundreds - of thousands of dollars and years of work by many people into a case on the hope that they will win, with no guarantees, is generally ignored. (You should read “A Civil Action” - good book.) I know lots of ex-lawyers and lawyers who went broke and bailed. No ex-doctors. Half the people who go to law school don’t end up as lawyers, for those who do, the average income is $110,000.</p>
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That’s just not true. The professions are very different, and the people who choose to go into one are rarely qualified for the others. Could you really program computers? Try a lawsuit? I know I wouldn’t try to perform and appendectomy, and I wouldn’t want most of my computer nerd friends to operate on me, either, no matter how bright they are.</p>
<p>I know many more affluent Drs then affuent Lawyers…</p>
<p>Why are we comparing lawyers and doctors as if the professions are equivalent?</p>
<p>Kluge–didn’t read all your posts. But dang. When my H was a resident, he was making less than 30K (a lot of years ago ,but still), and working about 100 hours a week. We were paying back mega-loans. We lived in a tiny apartment over a pizzeria. My kids wore second hand clothes. We lived paycheck to paycheck. When the very old car broke down, frequently, he took the bus to the hospital, and we walked.</p>
<p>Cripes. Don’t mean to complain–we chose it–but please don’t spin that into some high-flyiing rich guy scenario. It wasn’t.</p>
<p>Medicine was mostly a big mistake. Glad he’s a high school teacher now; the stress is a little less (despite the fact that he’s in line for a layoff and is public enemy number one.)</p>
<p>ICinderella, sorry to read about the financial issues…</p>
<p>Garland, come on…now your H has to worry about layoffs…geez…i thought there was a shortage of male science and math teachers.</p>
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<p>There might be. That doesn’t mean money just appears to pay them. And as states continue to remove money from the education budgets, the teachers and students suffer.</p>
<p>My internist is young, practising for only a few years and is planning on quiting in a few years and becoming a biology teacher</p>
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<p>Doc T, again, the justification of high salaries is not because of school. If that was the case, DH, who spent 8 years getting a PHD (undergrad plus graduate school) would not be now getting less than what a resident makes. Physicians make a high salary due to high demand for their very special and unique services. </p>
<p>ICinderella, I’m sorry that you are going through such a mess. Our decision to sell our practice while profitable was because we knew our present model was unsustainable.</p>
<p>Nope. Everyone in NJ is laying off. No one cares if he’s male or female or a giraffe (he’s not, by the way.) It’s all about testing–no one’s being judged by science tests, yet. Cut the science teachers, hire more math/reading/special ed, or more likely, more administrators to figure out how to raise the test scores. District is cutting science. H is old, has advanced degrees, and is wont to speak his mind.</p>
<p>Dang is all i can say. i did think this was a safe gig. But tenure means nothing when layoffs happen–last hired, first fired.</p>
<p>Fortunately, I don’t have any docs who are planning on quitting any time soon. Several of them have moved offices only recently and are starting to implement electronic medical records, so I think they’ll all be practicing for quite a lot longer yet. I’m glad of it because most of them are older than I am and the idea of looking for new docs doesn’t appeal to me.</p>
<p>My allergist is my age & my pulmo is younger than me but most of the rest are older.</p>
<p>When the 2 hospitals went bankrupt recently, 1000 people lost their jobs and everyone is scrambling to figure out how to be sure patients were placed and getting needed care. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I understand that there are two parties trying to entice the new young pulmo to practice with them. One is a private practice while the other is a HMO. Will be interesting to see what he decides. The private practice is my pulmo’s.</p>
<p>Icinderella… hear you!! have had multiple doctors in our area declare bankruptcy or close their practice… and it will get worse. if the 30% cut comes… 2012 fee schedule is reduced again even without the cut. we are surviving by H working more and more hours… at 67 the exact opposite of what we thought he would be doing.</p>
<p>Sorry to read your posts Garland…</p>
<p>I hope things work out…</p>
<p>One of my sister’s friends got a MD degree & then decided to become----a financial planner. She says he’s making good money & has no regrets. Seems like a huge waste of a medical education to me. 
I know other MDs who are working as bureacrats doing NO direct public outreach or service with our state Department of Health or insurers.</p>
<p>Thanks dstark-- I think you probably know the garlandfamily well enough to be confident that we’ll be ok. H has spent the weekend rewriting the ol’ resume, researching possibilities, and lining up references. And we save like demons. The thing that scares me is a possible break in bennies, but we can cobra if we have to. </p>
<p>We’re pretty good at making things work out ok; i just wish the system didn’t keep tripping up well-meaning, hardworking, dedicated folks. I don’t think it needs to.</p>
<p>Garland, yeah…me too.</p>
<p>“Several of them have moved offices only recently and are starting to implement electronic medical records, so I think they’ll all be practicing for quite a lot longer yet”</p>
<p>They HAVE to! They have to pay for the EMR!</p>
<p>good luck garland!!</p>
<p>shrinkrap…we are going to take the penalty… the cost is unreal along with the service contracts by the vendors… we would have to upgrade all our computers, billing software programs, dont have the staffing to convert etc.</p>