{"id":1740,"date":"2009-08-27T11:17:56","date_gmt":"2009-08-27T17:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/?p=1740"},"modified":"2009-08-27T11:31:02","modified_gmt":"2009-08-27T17:31:02","slug":"dalmia-goes-non-linear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/?p=1740","title":{"rendered":"Dalmia Goes Non-Linear"},"content":{"rendered":"

I usually like Shikha Dalmia. But this article<\/a>, castigating the AMA — which you will remember I am not<\/i> a friend of — is stunningly ignorant.<\/p>\n

(Note: part of this is based on e-mail exchanges with my dad, who is a surgeon).<\/p>\n

First off, the AMA represents less than 1\/6 of doctors, including academics. They are hardly a cartel although I will let on that they have too much influence.<\/p>\n

Second, she claims: <\/p>\n

According to a 2007 study by McKinsey&Company, physician compensation bumps up health care spending in America by $58 billion annually,on average, because U.S. doctors make twice as much as their OECD peers. And even the poorest in specializations like radiology and surgery routinely rake in around $400,000 annually.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is not even supported by the article she cites:<\/p>\n

Surveys by medical-practice management groups show that American doctors make an average of $200,000 to $300,000 a year. Primary care doctors and pediatricians make less, between $125,000 and $200,000, but in specialties like radiology, physicians can take home $400,000 or more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, the 400 grand she cites as what the poorest doctors make is, in fact, the high end of the range. Now that’s<\/i> misquoting.<\/p>\n

That article notes that our doctors make a lot more than doctors in other countries, which is a questionable point in and of itself. Even without any corrections for different economic systems, however, $100-300 grand does not seem to me an unreasonable salary for someone who saves lives, works seven days a week and is constantly on call for the hospital.<\/p>\n

Someone also noted in the comments that she conveniently takes the cost of physician compensation from one source, then cherry-picks a figure for defensive medicine from another. That’s Michael Moore territory.<\/p>\n

Dalmia’s article is poorly researched bashing of a political organization she doesn’t like that, not coincidentally, manages to slag all<\/i> doctors in the process. This is something I expect from Daily Kos, not Reason and not Forbes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I usually like Shikha Dalmia. But this article, castigating the AMA — which you will remember I am not a friend of — is stunningly ignorant. (Note: part of this is based on e-mail exchanges with my dad, who is a surgeon). First off, the AMA represents less than 1\/6 of doctors, including academics. They … Continue reading Dalmia Goes Non-Linear<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthcare"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BzKF-s4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1740"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1748,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions\/1748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}