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To: Jill who wrote (1525)	1/23/2000 8:28:00 PM
From: steve mamus	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 8096

OTOT Jill and the board: I know the economics of healthcare inside out. It is nonsense that the average surgeon makes 40K a day performing surgery. I do not want to offend anyone on this board (I like to keep things civil) but the fact is that physician salaries are really not that high. The average surgeon in our community (general) makes less then 350,000 dollars per year. Altho this is a significant amount this is not this nonsense which has been posted on this board that surgeons make 50,000 dollars a week or a day or whatever. Many surgical salaries in fact have gone down significantly. A general internist in our community (Orlando,Florida) would be lucky to crack 100,000 dollars per year working 80 hours per week. A general internist admitting a critical patient to the hospital and spending 5 hours in the coronary care unit would be lucky to be paid 100 dollars for his services. I was told by one of our GI specialists that the proposed reimbursement by medicare for 2001 for a sigmoidoscopy is something like 40 dollars. It costs me 150 dollars for a guy to come to my house for 45 minutes to clean my gutters. It is also incorrect in the extreme to say that physicians are happy with their salaries. At least a significant minority feel very bitter because of unrealistic expectations on their income potential. Jill I do take exception to your comments about your health care in this country. I have been in practice for over 14 years and feel that people in our community (even the uninsured) do receive excellent care. I agree that the system has alot to be desired. Try getting care in Canada. Also for years the eastern block was supposed to be a model for socialist medicine. I have visited a number of hospitals in the eastern block and while the physicians may be smart the hospitals and the care is an absolute joke. I used to live in Minnesota and their was a growth industry for MN and the Dakotas - Canadians fleeing their country to receive health care. A good friend of mine had her mother in Toronto scalded to death in a bath tub in Toronto in a nursing facility and she died from third degree burns. Because of the system their the family had little recourse for their loss. I agree with you that the motivations of physicians have to be for the right reasons. The fact is that the work is so difficult that I fail to see how anyone could do it for the money. Altho I like what I do I strongly discourage young people to go into this field for a variety of reasons. Steve