yet again another example of why capitalism is awesome and why government doesn't work?
So we should abolish government and allow the Free Market to reign free?
I can probably find 1 million examples of why this is a REALLY FUCKING DUMB IDEA.
Now as someone who has a GP as a father, and who knows about this system, I would like to make a few observations and statements.
7 years of medical school, Interships that last for many years, constant training and retraining, constant reading, working LONG hours and then having to maintain legal paperwork... Many doctors, particularly GPs work harder than lawyers and Corporate big wigs.
Many people complain about Doctors over charging per appointment. What you have to remember is that for every 15 minute appointment there is 15 minutes of paperwork, 10 minutes of management... and then there are staff and nursing staff to be paid, equipment that is VERY expensive to be purchased (a half decent Stethoscope is over a hundred dollars and Otoscopes which are the things that look in ears start at over $1000), a building to maintain (including sterilised areas) and a multitude of other costs (like running servers and backups, with offsite backups as well and).
While my father isn't one, there are some Doctors I know of in smaller practices who after tax and costs are earning less than $60K a year. (which granted it actually still quite a lot, but not as much as you would think)
So not ALL Doctors are raking it in.
Unlike Mechanics... who are able to rake it in quite easily.
These Doctors, the ones who are raking it in, are the 5 minute medicine doctors, the ones who abuse the system the most. The Chronically Ill patient treatment thing was actually a good system. From my understanding the Royal College put out a notice about the issue with the system as a warning, so it is likely many of these doctors could be fined.
