45 percent of Doctors say they want to retire – Auto workers say me too

November 19, 2008 · Posted in Finance, People in the news, Social Issues, Things to think about 

There has been a lot of hullabaloo lately about a recent research report by the Physicians’ Foundation. The “Main Stream Media” has taken this report and in typical fashion reported on the findings in a “shock and awe” fashion, telling Americans that their physician is soooo unhappy and going to quit any day now, because being a doctor is soooo hard.   This is meant to scare us and make Americans sympathetic to physicians and their grueling work schedule.  Another view point, and the one I am going to take in this article, is that the research report actually says things that virtually every business person in America would report, and in fact do report everyday.

If you actually read the report, which granted no one does anymore you would see that the facts are being taken out of context or at a minimum headlines are being created which could be written for any industry, so why do doctors get all the good headlines.

Lets look at the facts from the report.  Point 1 -  45% of physicians in the United States are dissatisfied and want to retire because of the difficulty associated with their career. Well I say big deal, who doesn’t feel this way?  The report actually says that 45% of physicians say “if they had the financial means” they would retire.  I performed an informal poll in my head and asked every man, woman and child in America if they had the financial means would they retire or quit school and 75% of Americans said they would retire and quit school.  It was truly shocking.  No not really, if people had the financial means why wouldn’t they retire?  I mean I am not a rocket scientist, but don’t most people start thinking about retirement and vacations the first week they start the career?

I see a lot of autoworkers who say they would retire, and a lot of teachers who say they would retire.  The point is people want to retire, it is often referred to as a GOAL and people are encouraged to do financial planning to achieve this GOAL, retirement is not often referred to as punishment, if you have the financial means.

There are many misquoted facts like this in the report that are taken out of context to seem as though they actually matter.  Let’s take another fact and really think about it.  Point 2 – “Declining reimbursement” rated highest on list of issues physicians identify as impediments to the delivery of patient care in their practices, followed by “demands on physician time”. Well yadafreakinda, I know a ton of commission sales people who feel this way, and a ton of advertising sales people, and car sales people, and financial advisors and just about everyone who has a business that faces foreign competition or technology automation.  The point is welcome to the real world Doc.  Margins are thinning, and the day when you average sales guy makes $80k – $150k are gone, and the average doctor will no longer make $300k.  I know some dentists that make $250,000 a year.  They complain about how it is getting more difficult to make a living, but they still work about 30 hours a week, and their dental hygienists work about 50.  $250,000 a year for taking care of peoples mouths is a good gig, and the fact that you want to retire when you have sufficient financial means does not exactly put the fear of God in me, in fact I do not blame you one bit.

It is high time we make it more affordable to become an MD, it is also high time we address tort reform, health insurance and rural and impoverished community health care. All of these topics get my complete support, and get me on the side of the physician, but telling me doctors who can afford it want to retire doesn’t really deserve national attention.  Let’s use our headlines sparingly, so when we take on health care we make the words actually matter.

That’s about all I have to say about that.

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2 Responses to “45 percent of Doctors say they want to retire – Auto workers say me too”

  1. » 45 percent of Doctors say they want to retire – Auto workers say me too on November 19th, 2008 9:54 am

    [...] | Share Your Press Releases with the World on the Social Network for Business News â?? PRPower… wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt There has been a lot of hullabaloo lately about a recent research report by the Physicians’ Foundation. The “Main Stream Media” has taken this report and in typical fashion reported on the findings in a “shock and awe” fashion, telling Americans that their physician is soooo unhappy and going to quit any day now, because being a doctor is soooo hard.   This is meant to scare us and make Americans sympathetic to physicians and their grueling work schedule.  Another view point, and the one I am g [...]

  2. Fashion News » Blog Archive » 45 percent of Doctors say they want to retire - Auto workers say me too on November 19th, 2008 9:59 am

    [...] Heard it in a bar placed an observative post today on 45 percent of Doctors say they want to retire – Auto workers say me tooHere’s a quick excerpt [...]

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