I'm in the middle of writing a series of posts on my own personal financial profile as a working family doctor. The goal of this series is to illuminate the ongoing discussion about physician compensation with the only real numbers I have access to: my own. This landing page will help you navigate the individual posts.
MEconomics, Part One: Intro and Assumptions
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....what I propose to do in this series of blog posts, affectionately entitled MEconomics. Over the next few weeks, I plan to outline my past and current financial profile, beginning with my first medical school debt and ending where I stand now, in mid-2008. At first I was going to be cute and talk about hypothetical scenarios, but then thought better of it. The truth of the matter is, I don't have anything to hide because I'm not a wealthy person and all of the money I have, I earned in a perfectly legal manner. If the honest portrayal of one working family doctor can have any leveling effect against the misconceptions about physician earnings and lifestyle that are running amok in the popular culture, then I am happy to volunteer to expose myself.
MEconomics, Part Two: The Long Reach of Med School
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When it comes to medical education, most people assume the opportunity cost is trivial compared to the future earning potential a doctor has upon graduating. Unfortunately, this assumption fails to examine the opportunity cost of medical education. Rather than trying to assign a dollar amount to opportunity cost, I prefer to express it as a salary/debt comparison between two scenarios.
MEconomics, Part Three: Making a Living
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This is an important question because one of the problems with medicine is that it is endless. There is always work to be done, patients to see, and shifts that must be filled. Assuming you are not a workaholic and don't work just for the fun of it, it behooves you to determine whether working more really earns you more. The easiest way to calculate earning potential is to look at income, although some type of work might earn you the esteem of your community, professional accolades, or just the feeling that you have done something good for humankind. These are also important rewards of work, but much more difficult to quantitate.
MEconomics, Part Four: Getting a Life--and Paying For It
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At one time in my life, I carried only a renter's insurance policy and got my health insurance through my employer. Then life took over and now I find myself with homeowner's, disability, auto, life and umbrella policies. On those days when I feel particularly ironic, I consider the multiplication of insurance policies in my name as a measure of professional success.
MEconomics, Part Five: Will You Work Until You Drop?
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Depressing scenarios aside, the truth is that most people outlive the limits of their working lives. The current life expectancy for a nonsmoking, somewhat active, normotensive woman at age 40--me--is 82. Assuming a retirement age of 65, I might expect to live for 17 years after retirement. In 1950, I would have only expected to live another 15 years. Advances in medicine and public health have prolonged our lives, with the result that we have to fund a longer period of retirement.
MEconomics, Part Six: Summary, Fantasies and Realities
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All fantasies aside, I believe doctors have to begin with their own expectations if they want to be satisfied with their professional careers. Unfortunately, we don't have total control over CMS reimbursement schedules or the industrialization of health care, although it is great to see doctors beginning to advocate for the profession now that healthcare is reaching yet another crisis point. However, even if doctors regain meaningful input into how healthcare is delivered in this country, it will not guarantee satisfaction with their careers, because such satisfaction derives from one's inner criteria for contentment.
Enjoy.
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