Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to get an appointment to see a primary care physician? It’s partly because many doctors don’t work in primary care. The push to specialize starts early in medical school. A physician told me as much. He wanted to be a primary care physician but his mentors in medical school told him he really didn’t. The truth was he wanted to see a variety of patients with a variety of different health problems, but his professors pushed him to specialize. From talking to him I got the impression that there was also a subtle coercion. It was like the professors were saying, “if you want me to mentor you then you will take my advice.” His professors considered specialties to be more challenging, more interesting, but it’s also that many specialties come with higher pay.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Monday Links
- Tax Policy Center: 43 percent of married couples pay more in taxes (averaging $2,064) for being married; another 43 percent pay less (averaging $3,062). Black couples are more likely to pay more.
- Is ice cream healthy for you?
- Woke health: NY The planning to require a “health equity assessment” opening a new facility or slashing or consolidating existing services.
- Doctors got bonuses to give patients the Covid vaccine.
- Why we have crime: the average person sent to jail in 2014 had 10.3 previous arrests (median 8) and 4.3 previous convictions (median 3)!
Saturday Links
- Letting nurses do more stuff is good for patients.
- 434 economists (including yours truly) criticize the Biden budget.
- Is the Food Stamp program contributing to America’s poor health?
- Biden: DACA kids should get free health care from Medicaid, CHIP and the ACA exchanges. Won’t that encourage more DACA kids?
- The FDA approves some drugs other nations don’t want.
- Study: After St. George’s Hospital in The UK ended its mask mandate for staff and visitors for some, but not all, wards, there was no difference in Covid infections between the two settings.
- Meta analysis of 2,168 studies finds that wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic led to negative health consequences, including itching, headaches, and restriction of oxygen.
Are Your Teeth Really Harbingers of Bad Health?
I read an article years ago that bad oral hygiene could lead to a host of other diseases, including clogged arteries and heart disease. I didn’t really believe it then and I don’t really believe it now. Nonetheless, The New York Times had an article on why oral hygiene is crucial to your overall health.