jberman

I wish someone would stop Jennifer Wohletz from being so tiresomely "cute" and hire a restaurant reviewer who is willing to write a straightforward review, and not subject us to her life story at the same time.

Why was so much attention given by the media to Casey Anthony's trial, when there are dozens of such cases which don't get the same publicity and that we never hear of? For fuller details, see Phyllis Chesler's artivle at the link below.

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I am writing in reference to the article in the Albuquerque Journal of January 16, recounting the interview with Governor Richardson about his health care plan. In the interview, he accused physicians of being too greedy and needing to give a little, instead of objecting to draft poposals that the health care authority have the power to control reimbusement. I wonder if the governor would be willing to take a pay cut in order to keep state spending down. There is a joke ciruclating among Arizona physicians that New Mexico has guards posted at the border to turn away doctors—that's how "physician-friendly" our state is thought to be!

I don't have current figures. However, a 2003 press release from the Center for Studying Health System Change stated that nationally, average physician net income from the practice of medicine dropped 5 percent in real dollars between 1995 and 1999, while other skilled professionals' (specialists) average income increased 3.5 percent, according to a national study released today by HSC.

The growth of managed care in the mid-1990s likely played a role in declining physician income by holding down spending on physician services through discounted fees and restrictions on the use of care.

I am not a physician, but a doctoral-level behavioral health provider in solo private practice for the past 10 years. I am a one-person office, keeping overhead low by not having a full-time staff to answer the phone, do bookkeeping, and take care of billing the multitude of insurance companies I contract with. Like other non-physician health care providers, my income is much lower than the national median, probably less than one-quarter of physician's income. I probably wouldn't be able to survive if I didn't have income resources in additon to what I earn in my professional practice. Like physicians, my income is regulated by the managed care companies, most of which have not increased the contracted fees in the past 10 years. Physician's fees are always higher than other health professionals and set the standard by which our fees are decided.

Most of us have spent many years in education and training to prepare for our service professions. Are we being greedy because we want to protect our interests and our income? I thought the governor was a proponent of private enterprise, but he is discouraging us by his insults.