Are Hospitals price gouging & are Doctors over paid?

Answer 1

I think that we need to chop the pay of all doctors down to just above minimum wage. What the hay, just because they've spent years and years in school and tons of money on education, certainly doesn't mean that they should receive higher pay than the average wage earner.

When we take their incentive away, and no longer have people willing to become Doctors, will Cuba take us in? :)

Answer 2

I don't know if it was the hospital or the health insurance but I once got charged $500 for a 10-mile (if that) ambulance ride after getting into a 3-car pileup. I do call that extortion. I probably could have driven myself to the hospital, as I wasn't too badly hurt. Hell, I could have called a cab and gotten to the hospital, in rush hour traffic, and paid a lot less.

I don't ask doctors what their salaries are so I can't really answer that part of the question.

Answer 3

Hospitals charge so much to pay for expensive pieces of equipment like MRI's, x-rays, cancer treatment facilities, and many more. Hospitals also have to keep clean and use a lot of equipment and money to keep the inside sanitary. Keeping the necessary staff to make sure the hospital runs smoothly and efficiently is not cheap either. You also have to consider the people who do not pay their hospital bills, this revenue has to be replaced. There are a ton of large expenses that hospitals deal with and hospitals must charge a lot to stay in business.

Doctors are not overpaid. It is simple supply and demand. There is a large demand for doctors and not a large supply of doctors. This means that the cost of hiring a doctor will be high. The only way to lower the salary of doctors would be to have more of them. This would mean that we would have to lower our standards and make it easier to become a doctor. Personally, I believe this would be a bad move. We want competent, smart, and intelligent people to be doctors, not any moron on the street.

Answer 4

Yes I believe hospitals do price gouge but doctors on the other hand I'm not sure look at what they pay in schooling and malpractice insurance. That is a lot of money.

Answer 5

This issue is very multifactorial.
Hospitals have a dedicated team of people in the billing department whose function it is is to get the maximum amount out of every visit. There are many gimicks to the system.
I would say that doctors practice something called defensive medicine... I would claim this is generally true. Basically what this translates to is unnecessary testing but its important to qualify this comment...
Unnecessary because its very very unlikely to be positive. The test is checking for the 1/1000 case in which it just might be positive. Medicine is a synthesis of statistics and opinions. My calculus professor stated truthfully: "Medicine is for guessers."

I think many doctors are overpaid:
examples include Lasik and the big gimmick of doing the same thing in a different way, and billing it as a whole new revolutionary procedure.
but some are not:
cardiologists make alot of money but if you spent just a day in their lives you would say they earn every penny.

Answer 6

In some cases, Hospitals probably do charge as much for services as they can get away with. Doctors do have the AMA, which puts many obstacles in the way of new doctors (most notably, grueling internships), and that does keep the supply of doctors more inelastic, which means they can demand higher pay as long as demand is increasing.

The third factor is that those who demand health care often demand more extravagant health care, because they do not directly pay the cost (insurance often does), and providers are, similarly, encouraged to provide excessive care to avoid potential exposure to (very expensive) lawsuits.

All that, together, has health care costs rising at double the rate of inflation.

Answer 7

Many hospitals are losing money. A few years ago many of them got nabbed over billing Medicare/Medicaid and performing unnecessary procedures, but by and large I don't think they are gouging. Medical equipment like MRI's and CAT Scans cost a hospital hundreds of thousands if not millions, and in the most populated areas, a majority of the patients have no insurance and the government, (us taxpayers) ends up footing the bill, usually at a reduced rate to the hospital.
Doctors do make a lot of money, but they should if they are good at what they do. Plus they have to pay ridiculous amounts of insurance, (thanks to frivolous law suits) and hundreds of thousands in student loans.
The fact is, medical advancements and equipment come at a great cost. Someone has to pay for it.

Answer 8

I dont think that doctors are overpaid . they are paid for all the time that they have spent in school and educating themselves in their area of expertise. I say this not because I'm a doctor or because anyone in my family is a doctor but because i broke my leg in march and i was really nervous i didn't know what to expect but i had this great doctor that was able to explain everything to me and was able to answer every question and he was there for me anytime i had a question or when it was his off day and i was having pain i was able to call him. Doctors really surrond their lives and their families around being a doctor. However i was glad that i had insurance and i didnt have to pay the 1500 emergency roomm bill but i think they are worth it they work really hard

Answer 9

Not all hospitals are non-profit entities, so I do suspect that some hospitals are driven to show profit.

May be true that some doctors are overpaid, but I wouldn't say all. One of my friends is a GP, and he charges for seemingly everything. Then again, his debts for medical school, insurance, rent, etc. are enough to crush me... He earns a great deal more than I, but he works like a dog.

Answer 10

NO and NO

It's the insurance & pharmaceutical companies that are driving up costs. Most hospital ERs have to treat people whether they have ins or not, and if they are dying and/or need expensive medical treatment, they have to provide it whether they are going to get reimbursed or not. That just does not explain to me why pharmaceutical companies charge the astronomical prices that they do for drugs. They don't treat anyone for free, and neither do the insurance companies.