In the US, physicians are some of the highest paid professionals
across the country, netting over $500K a year in some cases. While
each physician promises to do no harm, ethical questions arise as to
why they deserve so much pay. When discussing this issue, it is
important to remember a couple of things. While healthcare may be
a passion for many people, it is crucial to remember the extremely
difficult and long road physicians must endure in order to practice in
the industry today. Not only are physicians required to go through
intensive schooling for many years, there is an immense financial
barrier that comes along with this.
One can argue that an individual goes through the journey due to
their passion to help people and are reimbursed later by the financial
aspects of the career. However, it is important that physicians remain
aware of the initial reasons they joined the field. Gunderman and
Hubbard write; “In fact, however, income is not the only reward that
makes a medical career worthwhile, and a preoccupation with wealth
can impede the pursuit of other equally worthy objectives. In an era
when financial incentives and disincentives tend to receive the lion
share of attention, it is vital that physicians continue to bear these
other objectives in mind.” (Gunderman & Hubbard, para. 1, 2005).
Currently, the way the US healthcare system works creates ethical
issues within this topic. In order to create a system where physicians
practice solely out of passion and ethical purposes, a system reform
must take place. Removal of the barriers to become a physician must
occur, alongside the pay incentives. Rea of Carnegie Mellon writes;
“One commonly proposed solution to the problem involves requiring
physicians to disclose their financial interest for a given procedure.
However, disclosure of conflicts has been found to have limited, or
even negative, effects on patients” (Rea, para. 3, 2017). Full
disclosure leads towards an open market healthcare system, where
patients are able to understand what they are paying for and can
make decisions based off of that. Rather than keeping healthcare
between an ‘open market’ and a ‘government controlled’ system, US
healthcare needs to be one or the other. This would resolve majority
of the issues that the healthcare industry sees today.
References
Gunderman, R. B., & Hubbard, M. A. (2005). The wages of healing:
ethical issues in the compensation of physicians. Medical science
monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical
research, 11(2), SR5–SR10.
Rea, S. (2017, May 9). Doctors should be paid by salary, not fee-for-
service, argue behavioral economists - dietrich college of humanities and
Social Sciences - Carnegie Mellon University. Doctors Should Be Paid
By Salary, Not Fee-for-Service, Argue Behavioral Economists -
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Carnegie Mellon
University. Retrieved March 10, 2022,
from https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/news/news-stories/2017/may/
pay-physicians-salaries.html
