Politicians Move Over

My daughter-inlaw’s doctor is retiring this year. Not because he wants to, but because it just isn’t worth it any more. He claims his income has barely changed since the 1980’s! Costs have risen exponentially. Insurance, rent, equipment he can’t afford. And in doing a bit of research, I find he is absolutely right!

While the increase for primary care and ob-gyn’s flattened to a growth rate of just 9% over the last three decades – total, malpractice insurance has taken a heavy toll with rates running as low as about $15,000 annually, to over $120,000.   Beaten up by lawyers and insurance companies, doctors are calling it quits.

Slamming doctors for gouging their patients on their $150,000 salary, we fail to even flinch over the compensation package for United Healthcare’s CEO who made $66 million in 2014 (this doesn’t even touch the other executives). That would cover 440 doctors salaries per year… Of course, United is whining about losing money… despite health insurance premiums rising about 300% over the last decade.  Sounds like massive mismanagement to me.

Add to the fray the burnout rate for doctors in the US and the numbers are staggering, ranging from 40% to 53%! In addition, in a survey they stated that the number one cause of their burnout and bias was that their patient had emotional problems including maligning the doctor, demanding drugs, and entitlement. The second cause of burnout was patient obesity, third was ability to comprehend or intellectual barriers.

In the US, 33% of doctors are over 50 and 25% are over 60. The profession that was about ‘helping people’ has churned into a cog of assembly line medical practices dictated by insurance companies, pharma companies and regulators. As a result, a massive shortage is predicted to take hold in the next 3-5 years.   Sixty percent of doctors predict that the entire practice of medicine is in jeopardy.

While nurses and PA’s were supposed to alleviate the pressure and load, they are reporting equal burnout themselves. As more doctors retire, those left will be handed an even heavier burden, raising their burnout, and the domino effect could conceivably spiral out of control.

Taking with them will be the malpractice attorneys who have a smaller base to sue in order to provide their income, raising the bar for higher value lawsuits, higher malpractice premiums, and… implosion.

This is what happens when politicians run countries instead of businessmen. I am reminded of a time when my son’s teacher marked him an F because he left his paper in his locker and she refused to let him get it. When I challenged her decision, a board of teachers faced me off and told me they were just teaching him a lesson of how life worked in the real world work force…

Of course, none of these ‘teachers’ had spent one day in the real world work force or they would have known that a boss would NEVER fire an employee who left their briefcase in the car – they would simply groan and tell them to retrieve it – like any normal human being!

Unfortunately, when you work for the politicized government, it would seem that normalcy is left at the door.

Even Sarah Palin’s ridiculous tantrum over Trump giving a tax break to one company in order to entice them to stay in the US, was rife with political mentality. She would prefer that Trump follow the dictum of rules that requires years if not decades to change…while giving lobbyists a chance to make any bill impossible to pass as they load it down with thousands of political additives – a Molotov cocktail.

China’s military spending is massively dwarfed by the US, which doesn’t include NATO – 400-500% greater! What do they do with their surplus? Expand their economy through business relations. Ditto – Russia. So while our own economy is drained, the very competitors we condemn are allowed to grow exponentially.

Business people understand what Trump is doing, politicians don’t. And politicians have created the massive mess we are in today – and that would include both parties.