Imagine You Are a Doctor

August 19, 2009
by Hunter Baker

As the debate over healthcare reform has developed, opposition has coalesced against the idea of a “public option” — the creation of a new government insurance program. The most common objection is that the existence of such a program would lead many companies to abandon their employee insurance plans in favor of a cheaper government alternative as a way of cutting costs. Thus, despite the president’s many assurances, individuals with insurance plans they like would probably lose their current coverage and end up moving to something like Medicare. The specter of losing a good private plan and ending up in a less satisfactory public program is a solid reason for opposing the measure, but there is a better reason for opposition. It has to do with human rights.

Imagine that you are a physician. You have made it through four years of college on a steady diet of biology, chemistry, and calculus, four years of medical school so demanding that you have no life outside of school, and at least three years of residency in which you have regularly worked 100 hours a week for a very low salary. You have been the first to get up and the last to go home. And somewhere in there your third decade of life, commonly known as your “twenties” (normally a fun time), has disappeared. Along the way, you have probably racked up an astronomical personal debt because there is no time to work a second job to help pay it off. The first professional hurdle you set out to clear will be six figures accumulating interest. Forget family. If you have a spouse at this point, he or she is probably full of resentment at never seeing you.

After all this, have you made your way to an easy job? No. You are likely spending four days a week seeing patients, another day in surgery, taking a 24 hour call every four days, and working one weekend out of every four. The only time you are ever off is when another doctor can be found to cover your responsibilities while you are out. The job itself is rewarding, but incredibly difficult. You see patients and listen to them explain their symptoms. Using your knowledge, you have to figure out what is wrong with them and which of the many options for treatment you should choose. If you are a specialist who performs surgeries, you have to cut into another human being with a blade and try to correct what is wrong inside the body. It’s stressful work. the rest