You can't get it the number of doctors right

"Doctors No One Needs" NY Times December 22, 2009

The number of doctors and what types of doctors is being debated in this article. Lobbying groups are trying to get their type of doctors subsidized by the feds.

Doesn't this strike you as a bit odd?

We are trying to decide how many medical slots to fill in the NY Times.

This problem is far too complex to be resolved politically and by debate. If the number of doctors is determined in a political process, the powerful interests will win out almost always.

Your health care is being determined by debate and it just won't work. Becoming a doctor and deciding on a specialty is a personal decision that is complicated in and of itself. A person has to WANT to be a doctor, be motivated to work very hard and make significant trade-offs in their lives. Yet this article makes it sound like there are slots to be filled and there are robots out there to be plugged into these slots. We wise ones just need to make sure we have allocated the correct number of slots.

No one suggests that the feds should determine the number of software engineers. (Well, actually they do determine how many can come from abroad, but that is another story.) If the feds were to do this we would all laugh our you know whats off. We know for certain that they couldn't get it right. Software and its specialties are a fluid market that changes from month to month. Market demand, technology advances and capital are shifting continually.

So, why do we think we can determine how many doctors are the right number? It is just as silly, yet Shannon and Goodman believe more doctors will "provide poor-quality care at too high a price."

Let's treat the medical industry like the technology industry and let the market place creatively work to compete for our business with better quality and lower prices. The computer industry has been the least regulated industry in the world and we know have incredible advances and collapsing costs.

Last week I got my annual physical (ok...the last one was three years ago) and the doctor (actually the nurse practitioner because to get an appointment with the doctor - it takes three months) gave me a form to get a blood test. I asked her how much it would cost. She said she had no idea. So I called the lab on the back of the form and it took awhile, but finally they said it would cost $505. Whew! We have an $8000 deductible and an HSA account so this means we are paying for it ourselves. So I go on the web and find a website that would send me to a local lab that would do it for $278. I called that lab directly and they said if I paid for it with my HSA debit card, it would be only $190. That is a discount of over 60%.

So I went to the lab and they were professional aand quick. I asked the receptionist why they were so much cheaper than the lab I was referred to and they said they had to be better because they were competing against other companies.

I know that this is just once example, but what if all medical services had to compete. Would the national health care cost drop by 60%? Perhaps it would.

So, you wise guys who think you can manage the complexity of health care and allocate the number of doctors, back off. You can’t do it. Let the health care system compete to meet our needs. This will determine just the right number of doctors without the need of wise guys.

in reference to: Op-Ed Contributors - Doctors No One Needs - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)