My girlfriend is training to get her CNA so she can have a decent job in college while she pursues a medical degree (she hopes to be a reconstructive sergeon). We have been watching all the Democratic presidential debates together, and while our positions on issues and candidates vary some, one thing we can both agree on is that Universal Healthcare is the most amiguous plank in any political platform EVER!
Clinton's and Barack's Healthcare plans sound great! Lets give free healthcare to anyone who wants it, anyone who can not afford traditional healthcare, and mandate it for children! Sounds great, Barack! And Hillary, who wouldn't want everyone to have non-competitive mandated healthcare rates nationwide? It sounds like the perfect plan. But one group of people no candidate has mentioned are the healthcare workers.
Currently, a reconstructive sergeon can expect and entry-level position in a hospital or clinic to bring in an average salary (according to http://www.salary.com) of $195,000/year. Sounds like a ridiculously large sum of money, right? In fact, most medical professionals will tell you that reconstructive surgeons sometimes bring home over $1,000,000/year. Again, that is a WHOLE lot of money. Now lets take a look at the average debt of a recently graduated medical student. Lets say my girlfriend goes to Duke for her Bachelor's degree in Biology (the first step to becoming a doctor). Thats $36,000/year X Four Years = $144000. Okay. First step complete. Now we have to go to Medical School. AMSA.org reports that average medical school debt can be upwards of $365,000. Okay, so now we have a total of $509,000. That is the total Educational Debt my girlfriend can expect.
Lets look at another expense. Medical Insurance. Malpractice insurance is very, very expensive. And whose pocket is the money taken from? The hospital? No! The doctor's. So how much can She expect to pay for Malpractice insurance? OBGYN's (some of the most-sued doctors) pay on average a premium of $84,000.
So my girlfriend might make $195,000/year. Her insurance is $84,000/year and, lets say her average yearly debt repayment with 7.5% interest is $28,000/year for 20 years. How much will my girlfriend make every year? $83,000. What does she do for a living? She saves your life.
Now, the question is, what will universal healthcare do to the healthcare workers? It could potentially lower the worker's salaries. Doctor's will no longer be able to charge as much for services rendered (which are so high because of the expenses doctors face to even be licensed practitioners).
Is universal healthcare a good idea? I think so. But it will take some serious planning to get a plan in place which will not harm the Healthcare industry.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Teachers are in the same boat. After six years of school, I will have over $100,000 in debt. It's not 500,000, to be sure, but I will never, ever make over $50,000 a year. I don't have to pay malpractice insurance, but my health insurance will be 20% of my salary, and it increases by 8% or so every year. The starting salary is $34,000 and raises, if granted at all, are usually between 0.5% and 1%. It's rough all over. But I might be able to figure out way to survive on $83,000. It's been working so far on $30,000 combined for myself and my partner. We both have cars, we own a house, we are never hungry. We even have some investments. It's a matter of prioritizing. We will never own a Mercedes, for example. But we're fine, and we're happy.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Couple things I see wrong with your post. First, the debt is not $365,000. I don't know many medical schools that CHARGE that much, PERIOD. My state school has a debt for out of state students of $275,000. The average debt is more around $150,000. People probably end up paying $365,000 with interest, but that's not how much in loans they take out for medical school.
Second, she probably won't be paying that much for malpractice. Also, if you're going to make an argument for a specific doctor, pick one and carry through with all the values, not pick and choose between the many physicians. An OBGYN has very different responsibilities than a reconstructive surgeon. In NY, the malpractice insurance for an orthopedic surgeon is $37,643, quite a bit different from your quoted $84,000.
And she's not going to be saving lives, exactly. If she was an ER doc, I could believe that. If she was a trauma surgeon, I could buy that. But not a reconstructive surgeon. Might better a life for someone, but someone who goes in for plastic surgery probably isn't in a life threatening situation.
Additionally, she's only going to be making around $45,000 for something like 7 years, if she continues on this path many years from now. But she doesn't have to pay anything towards her loans (at least, as of now... they've been messing around with the repayment laws, so by the time she gets to that point, she might have to). So she won't be making much money for many years now. And yet, people manage just fine.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
I appreciate the comments. I do not doubt that many of the sources I've cited may have bloated figures, but the point is essentially the same: What little money she is going to make for changing someone's life could be dramatically reduced by universal healthcare.
J. Allen Jordan
But it all depends on how it's implemented. In other countries with universal healthcare, there is no debt coming out of medical school, so that's not something to worry about. Your girlfriend still has at least 4 years before she goes into medical school, so if we do switch with our next president, she'd fall under that.
Universal healthcare could also mean no malpractice, depending on how it's done.
Also, I highly, highly doubt that most of people undergoing reconstructive surgery are going to be covered under universal healthcare, so she may fall entirely outside of that realm.
But really, if she can't make a living on $83,000 a year, she has some major problems. My mom can own three homes and support three children, including myself in college, by herself on that much. Also, if she's going into medicine because of the money she'd be making, she might want to think of another career.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
Fortunately enough, she is not going into the business because of the money. I appologize for misleading you to think this. However, it is a concern of ours that universal healthcare could potentially and unintentionally lower the quality of life for everyone involved. I guess we will have to wait and see how it will be implemented.
J. Allen Jordan
It's a good argument. If Universal Healthcare is to be implemented, college tuition and costs would need to be changed as well.
I'm just scared of higher taxes...sorry to be selfish.
Taxes are a serious issue. I want someone to give me a good solution for implementing Universal Healthcare without raising the taxes of the middle class.
J. Allen Jordan