When I married my very insanely awesome husband eleven years ago, his marriage proposal came with a warning. "I'm going to be a doctor, Tam. Medical scholl will be hard. Residency will be worse. Life will be hard."
How hard? To put it in perspective, I've decided to address the topic to the Chief himself.
Dear President Obama,
Doctors are an easy target. They make lots of money. They live priveledged lives. They can afford the cuts in salary you're soon to give them.
But, wait. How long did it take for a doctor to get to where he is?
Four years of undergrad+four years of medical school+3-7 years of residency+1-4 years of Fellowship=11-19 years of training.
Do the math yourself. Yes, I'll repeat it. 11-19 years of a doctor's life is spent in training. That's longer than they spent in Elementary, Middle, Junior and High School combined.
Do they drive corvettes and live in mansions during training? Do they get paid the big bucks?
Let's put it this way--Last month I struggled to pay our bills. I had to grovel at the feet of my in-laws for enough money just to cover groceries for the month.
My husband and I have been married eleven years. He's still training. He still doesn't get paid enough to support our family. And when he finally does become a full-fledged doctor, he'll have at least $100,000 of student loans to repay.
So, Mr. President. Please, please don't regulate our doctor's wages, unless you want a healthcare crisis, a shortage of doctors, and more American citizens on food stamps than our already overloeaded system can handle.
Sincerely,
A Doctor's Wife
There are so many misconceptions about doctors out there! Just the other day someone said to me, "It must be nice to be a doctor's wife." My emphatic answer was, "Not yet!"
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