This commentary is pretty much everything I've said here about practicing medicine

[The Mad Monk]

I think I first saw it in a history class in high school. Wiki says it's 56 years old.

As does it's publishing date.

[Lorizael]

It's either normal, you are on a one-way train headed toward spontaneous thoracic implosion.

Awesome!

[onodera]

How much does one have to pay to become, say, a qualified surgeon in the US?

[KrazyHorse]

It's more true than not, however.

I doubt you have sufficient supporting evidence to make this claim.

[Guynemer]

How much does one have to pay to become, say, a qualified surgeon in the US?

Medical school costs an obscene amount of money.

As a pediatrician, I only had three years of post-medical school training (residency), where you are paid ~40-45k/yr, working ~80hr/wk. Surgeons have five such years, or much, much more depending on subspecialization.

The surgeons make much more money than I do (probably 2-7x as much, depending), and rightly so.

I'll be paying off my med school loans probably until I retire, if not longer than that.

[onodera]

No wonder your healthcare costs are so expensive that that guy was happy a simple excision only cost a single grand and not eleven, even though he didn't have to pay that himself.

[Al B. Sure!]

Guynemer, I've recently acquired the ability to crack my chest like I crack my knuckles. Is that bad?

Oh my god. Me, too, but not all the time. I do it whenever I do my first pushups or pullups of the day. I often do a sort of pushup against the wall just to get it out before I actually do any exercise. I can't repeat it after that, though.

[Al B. Sure!]

I became aware of it only this morning.

Does it make you feel sad that rappers were familiar with the Nacirema before you?



Papoose: more cultured than TMM

[Al B. Sure!]

So what gives? Americans are hypochondriatic pussies but men don't go to the doctor? How does that jive? Women?

[Lorizael]

I just got back from the doctor. They drew blood. I almost died driving back to work.

[Arrian]

If we did go with a system of catastrophic coverage + pay-as-you-go for more minor stuff, we really need price transparency. People have to actually know - in advance - what they'll be paying for this or that, or the magical market* won't function properly.

-Arrian

* - I say this only half in jest. Properly functioning markets do seem pretty magical at times.

[Dr Strangelove]

At a time when we have an unprecedented obsession with health – Dr. Oz, The Doctors, Oprah and a host of daytime talk shows make the smallest issues seem like apocalyptic pandemics

It would help if the popular media broadcasting advice were competent to give out decent evidence based advice and if they'd stop giving equal time to naturopathy, chiropractic and the rest of the con men. There is a problem with saying that however, trained physicians aren't immune to fads. Around here Vitamin D is all the rage.

[Kitschum]

It's all about educating patients.

There should be intermediacies between dismissing a health complaint and going to the emergency room.

[Tuberski]

My wife had an MRI a couple of months ago, we are fighting the insurance company right now because they have an MRI listed under Plastic Surgery.

ACK!

[Dr Strangelove]

My wife had an MRI a couple of months ago, we are fighting the insurance company right now because they have an MRI listed under Plastic Surgery.

ACK!

I guess if you really jacked the gauss intensity up high enough at some point the machine probably might be capable of rearranging a subject's features.