My editor and I were driving back from a baseball game with a friend, we’ll call Sue. Sue is a self-described Progressive. My editor Michael and I are not.
Sue pointed to a yellow and white house with a sign identifying the house as a doctor’s office. “That’s my cute doctor’s cute office,” she told us. She went on to explain that this doctor was great. He was a leader in technology because he had all his patient’s records and his notes on line. Everything was always available, she explained. Note that Sue recently went through an illness. Therefore, when she tells me her doctor is good I am inclined to believe her.
Neither Michael nor I asked her what she thought would happen to her cute little doctor, his cute office, and his incentive to innovate under universal healthcare or whatever government controlled program our nation is racing toward; we were still struggling with our baseball team’s loss despite 14 strikeouts, an issue for a different blogger than me to address.
Michael and I believe that the cute doctor will have to give up his cute office for something more institutional and he will lose the financial incentives to innovate. That is not to say he will lose all his incentives to innovate. Leading doctors generally have motives in addition to money for their work. Still, Michael and I agreed that we like it when doctors also have monetary incentives to provide great care and to innovate. We recognize that our lives or the life of a family member just might depend on a doctor that was motivated to greatness by incentives including money.
What does Sue think the future is for her cute doctor and others like him? I don’t know, but I’ll ask her and report back to you. That answer might lead to interesting discussion. Sue is very intelligent, and successful.
Note: Please see the MYODB Politics five point plan for healthcare.
———-
I asked her. She didn’t know what would happen to her cute doctor and his cute office. She does support healthcare reform though.
{ 1 trackback }