Nurse Anesthetists salaries now surpass those of primary care doctors

Nurses are now paid more than primary care doctors. Money of course drives everything. The federal government has led the movement to systematically devalue primary care over the past two decades mostly by specialists influencing Medicare reimbursement rates.

For the past decade, only about 5% of graduating residents pursued primary care— mostly because they feel like they should earn more than nurses.

When boomers die or retire, primary care, the backbone of a highly functioning healthcare system, is dead. And no amount of health insurance reform can fix this problem, especially when the most affordable insurance plans depend on primary care doctors as the gatekeepers. We’re 20 years behind the game. We’ve let the “System” stop functioning like a System and become an industry, and now DC is thinking that we can create a “System” out of an industry that has formed based on profits, not need.

Preach it, brother.

I’ve had an inside look at an independent, physician-owned primary care group that has just struggled over the last 10 years. And amazingly, it’s been considered a success compared to it’s defunct peers. Similar groups have been sucked up by hospitals where they will encourage you to pay more for services that you don’t necessarily need (hospitals gotta make profit, they say.) This leads to these nurses getting paid huge (and just imagine what the anesthesiologists make!)

Also, end of life care is ridiculously expensive and a big part of the problem. The closer a loved one gets to dying, the more willing we are to take out a mortgage to extend their life for a few more weeks or months. I’m not saying it’s not an impossibly hard decision to make - and that I would make it any differently - but there are a number of consequences of everyone choosing to act like this. Such as premiums rising 20% year after year, forcing my generation to go without insurance.

Here’s a great article on end of life care, about how Roman Catholic nuns have this figured out. Inexpensive, personal and death with dignity - something our hospitals can’t provide - even with these super expensive nurses.