Back in May, I posted an entry about my $83 physical checkup that took six months to schedule and required skilled negotiators at both the doctor’s office and the insurance company to bring the bill down from $510. A paper invoice was mailed to my house and a paper check for $15 mailed back in response.
This morning I called a veterinarian in Seattle to ask if she could see my four month-old Border Collie and investigate his tummy problems. The receptionist offered an appointment not six months later but six hours later. Instead of a multi-page HIPAA form, insurance forms, and demands for my Social Security number, the animal hospital asked for my street address and phone number. Instead of waiting for 20-60 minutes to see the doctor, I was seen at the appointed time. I paid the $67 checkup bill on the spot with a debit card.
[How’s the animal, you may ask? I’m awaiting the results of a test for parasites. His stomach problems don’t seem to be interfering with his demonic energy, as shown in this Motorola Droid 2 videos, captured shortly after the vet visit: with adult Border Collie; with another puppy]
But human healthcare is “too important” to be left to the market! Funny way of showing importance.
I wonder how the experience would be if the collie’s doctor’s malpractice insurance cost as much as your doctor’s. That and the burden of regulation, are probably a large part of the difference, along with insurance.
“Get well soon!” to your pooch.
This will change if enough people sign up for the health care for pets that has started to show up out there.
Jeffrey: My brother is an anesthesiologist, one of the highest risk and most expensive-to-insure specialties. When he completed his training, I found out how much his malpractice insurance cost. It was equivalent to about two weeks’ pay and was paid by the hospital. It thus drove up the cost of his services by just under 4 percent.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-14-pets-malpractice_x.htm indicates that veterinarians paid about $200/month back in 2005 or $2400/year for malpractice insurance. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos076.htm#earnings says that the median vet earned $79,000 per year, so insurance is about 3 percent of the vet’s income.
[The average income of the vet is overstated to some extent here; the BLS notes that vets who work for the government earn $93,400 per year, plus presumably benefits worth almost as much. The vet in private practice, subject to the ups and downs of the economy and working on weekends, probably earns less than the $79,000 number since the median earnings include vets employed by the government.]
If vets only make that kind of money, and it is supposed to be as difficult and expensive as med school, it makes you wonder why anyone does it?
M: It is true that physicians make more (http://stats.bls.gov/OCO/OCOS074.HTM#earnings says $186,000 for a primary care doc; $340,000 for a specialist) and the training is about the same, so I guess we must conclude that there are some people who would rather spend time with dogs than with other people! (Though ominously the bureaucrats at the BLS note that vets “sometimes have to deal with emotional or demanding pet owners”.)
Folks: Ollie was diagnosed with whipworm and giardia. Apparently it is safer to eat at McDonald’s than to pick up disgusting things from the ground with one’s mouth and to drink from streams and ponds. Supposedly he will be improving in 24-48 hours with the drugs that he is on.
I’m not sure how accurate your brother’s malpractice was. My wife (OB/GYN) pays over 70k per year in malpractice. I assure you she makes nowhere near that amount of money in 2 weeks of work. For the record we are in a middling risk area in the USA and she has had no malpractice rulings against her. I was paying 9k per year as an Internal Medicine specialist when I actually paid for my own insurance about 8 years ago and my salary here was under 140k. My father (pediatric radiologist) was in a similar situation as your brother with insurance covered by the hospital he worked in and has no idea what malpractice cost but the time was also a somewhat kinder period 15 years ago for insurance.
Admission to veterinary school is often considered more difficult than med school. There are relatively fewer spots per applicant and the admission requirements are nearly interchangeable with med school demands. My sister and spouse both are Vet Internal Med specialists out in San Fran and love what they do. Ominously, they are starting to find insurance creeping into their lives as well with the corresponding hassles of never ending paperwork and regulations.