President Obama has launched a vigorous but misguided initiative to expand health care coverage in America. He wants every American to have access to high quality health insurance. To accomplish this, he wants to lower the costs of insurance plans so that more Americans can afford it. According to the president's official Web site, he hopes to couple this with a new initiative to "promote scientific and technological advancements."
But to lower the cost of insurance plans to Americans would be to also reduce the amount of money that insurance companies such as Medicaid, which the majority of welfare recipients possess, have to reimburse doctors for their work. For example, a doctor who was compensated $1,000 by Medicaid for a surgery may only be compensated $700 for the same procedure if the cost of health care plans were lowered. Doctors only receive the amount of money that the insurance companies believe a procedure to be worth, which is not always the same as what a physician will bill for a procedure.
The worry here is that this may deter highly-qualified doctors from attending medical school for four grueling years in addition to at least three years in residency. Many doctors expect that the time they invest in medical school will reap rewards with generous compensation for their efforts. According to the American Medical Association, the average medical school graduate was $139,517 in debt in 2008. If doctor's incomes were to decrease as a result of lowering insurance costs, more students interested in medicine may abandon their pursuits because it would not be profitable for them anymore.
In addition, according to the American Medical Association, the debts for medical students are rising. This, in turn, forces them to work more hours, which increases fatigue and alienation from the medical profession. If doctors were reimbursed at higher rates for medical procedures, they would need to work fewer hours. This would lead to mentally sharper doctors who are more able to engage in complex research and treatment. Furthermore, more doctors would flood the job market, which would allow for more resources to treat patients who need care. There is a double standard in the President's two goals of lowering insurance costs while promoting science and technology. The money for advancement must come from somewhere, and it should come from keeping insurance costs high.
The president's Web site mentions that the United States spent $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, or roughly $7,421 per person. It is true that this is far more than other nations spend, but America also enjoys a very high standard of living and is the envy of the world in terms of medical advancements and quality of medical care. Frequently, people from all over the world, many of whom live under universal health care systems, need to be flown to America for emergency surgery because the systems in their respective countries do not encourage doctors to excel and achieve.
After all, if doctors in many universal health care systems have a limited income potential, what is their incentive to spend extra hours in the research labs to develop a vaccination for a certain disease?
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