This guy is in the Museum of Idiots. "On the other hand, I suspect there are more than a few doctors, dentists and others who aren't quite as charitably inclined." Hey, idiot, that isn't his choice.

Point #2 to not paying for services: you have no basis for protest if "free" service is unsatisfactory (#1 is that if you don't pay, you don't get to say what you get).

Oh, yeah... one of the reasons doctors accept insurance plans is to make sure they get paid. This will do that, and you, the consumer, don't pay a dime until you get services.

How about a program where the government pays for a person's medical education in exchange for a couple of years of service at a public hospital/medical facility, similar to how the government acquires military officers via ROTC? Would this not increase the supply of doctors in this country?

Robert - you miss the point. The AMA and the licensing boards primary responsibility is to keep the supply of doctors artificially constrained.

They're working at cross purposes here.

Mr. Lazurus,

You inspired me sir! Here is my idea for another "mandate". How about all California residents every year are mandated that for every two people you have in your house you also must allow a prisoner with one year left on their sentence to live with you. You know, as a condition of getting that lease or purchasing that property. That way, the state of California would save money on it's prison expenses and you can feel really, really good about yourself. And so can I. Because I came up with this idea that would not personally impact me in any way. Just like your idea. Thanks!

What a fucking tool this guy is. Typical liberal dumbshit idea. Notice how he didn't volunteer himself. How about the state of California require all reporters and correspondents to work for free as janitors, candy strippers or orderlies at state and county hospitals. Imagine the savings and the sense of community they would feel. DOUCHBAG!!!

Why is it that liberals have no problem spending your money or enslaving you to work so long as it doesn't require them to do the same.

Here's a suggestion, all liberal congressmen, senators, czars, insiders, reporters and presidents cabinet work for free for a few years and give up there pensions. Talk about saving money.

They really have no shame.....

Greedy doctors deserve what happens to them. Most of them are a species of cosmopolitan racist anyway, if you know what I mean. Hey it's not me, it's UN resolutions that say that!

If you're not some kind of greedy social parasite like these disloyal capitalist doctors you've got nothing to worry about. And now Timmy can get well!

But don't worry, you're not a doctor.

Niemöller, meet von Hayek. Serfdom makes the long march through the institutions on little kitten feet, for the children.

[Best cliche mashup evah!]

(I've read far too much agitprop. It's scary how easy it is to hit the jocular threatening tone. I should contact the office of the Information Czar about a job.)

--
phunctor

@Ed: "...require all reporters and correspondents to work for free as janitors, candy strippers or orderlies..."

No, you don't understand. I suspect Lazerus thinks doctors are rich and successful right out of the gate (never mind the school debt, insurance, equipment cost, rent on facilities, etc.). They should be required to pony up more. Reporters and correspondents are struggling little guys, at least when it suits them.

Oh, don't think I missed your "candy strippers" typo. It's just that the thought of a newspaper reporter going full Monty precluded making any jokes.

You know, every profession has something valuable to offer. He really should start with a trial run closer to home. Talk to his colleagues, and see if they what they think of spending 10% of their working time doing pro bono work.

Then suggest requiring them to do so for the rest of the professional lives, as a condition of employment.

Unidentified body found washed up on the shore. News at 11:00.

Old RPM Daddy: Glad to see you got the humor on the "candy strippers".

I also for got how unbelievably wealthy and without dept Dr's are. LMFAO.....

This is just what we need to do, so that even more doctors will leave the profession. Heavy sarcasm intended.

In the last two years, two great physicians have left our practice because of the high cost of medical malpractice insurance and being fed up regarding dealing with insurance companies. Both found they could make more money going into another field and save themselves a lot of headaches.

> The AMA and the licensing boards
> primary responsibility is to keep
> the supply of doctors artificially
> constrained.

Be afraid, Brian! Other people aren't suspicious enough, but you're plenty clever... You see all the evil in the heart of others, and are able to protect yourself! Teach us how!

Is this your new tack, Crid? I haven't had anyone suggest that I kill myself as a method of life improvement in 25 years.

Perhaps all along it's YOU who was the 16 year old. It would explain your obsession with the ages of other commenters.

Good lord, Ms. Alkon sure can pick out the idiocy. This guy needs five colors of stupid slapped out of him immediately.

I am sure the families of those doctors, who might otherwise enjoy mom or dad's company, will be perfectly happy to know that time away from them is for the common good.

After all, the doctors cannot take a pay cut--most people cannot--so they will have to simply work more time in order to comply.

And any other charitable activity the doctor does will go away. And hobbies to help the doctor stay well-balanced and productive will disappear.

In short, we make the doctor's (and the doctor's family's) life worse, to make ours better, supposedly.

These people are unbelievable.

You've come to fascinate me, Brian... Your whole life, as viewed from your comments, is about [A] other people being 100% wrong & evil without exception and [B] you having the perfect answer... Often announced with a "Simple!" at the top of the comment. I've never seen you express so much as a shred of admiration of another man, or even for his work, in ANY field of endeavor. There are no good systems, and no other skull holds intuition worth considering, no matter how different their perspective.

How could a person build a personality like this? Maybe a father could drag his little boy by the hair from his bed to the floor every morning, beat him savagely at five hands of Texas Hold 'em, and then slap 'im around a little after breakfast before he leaves for the school bus. That's about it.

Have you ever had a moment's happiness that wasn't about other people being wrong?

Modern American medicine is the envy of human history: But to you it's not even a tool of oppression: It's just a cynical street scam.

The idea of pro bono work is not unheard of for professionals. It's not medicine, but the attorneys are obliged – or at least strongly encouraged – to do a certain amount of pro bono service each year (at least in Florida, where I know a good number of attorneys).

Crid - Are you really as stupid as your comments of the last week indicate, or have you simply been hit on the head one too many times?

You start by making the mistake of assuming that the entirety of my personality is on display here. It is not.

My comments here have been critical simply because of the nature of the subjects being debated. I see no reason to praise someone for holding views that history has repeatedly proven false.

Have you ever had a moment's happiness that wasn't about other people being wrong?

Not that you'd recognize as valid.

Modern American medicine is the envy of human history: But to you it's not even a tool of oppression: It's just a cynical street scam.

And now for the weapons-grade stupid. You've conflated the AMA with the medical profession, and medicine in general.

I never made any such comparison myself, of course.

And then to use your manufactured straw man to convince yourself that I'm some trembling naif, and then suggest that the only way to save myself from the bogeyman is to KILL MYSELF?

Dude. Seriously.

The last person that told me I'd be doing the world a favor by killing myself bought me almost thirty years.

You just bought me another fifty. Because apparently my work here is not complete.

Whatever -

Here's a little difference though - attorneys don't have to pay for malpractice insurance.

Unless you want to come up with a way to indemnify the doctors during their pro bono work, it's inherently unfair to subject them to the risk.

Are there any studies that show trends in malpractice claims? I'd be interested to see if there's a correlation between indigents and claims.

Other people are stupid, Brian! Weapons-grade!

Lawyers do have malpractice ins. at least in my state of NC. I am not an attorney but I have several lawyer friends. The NC Bar Association dues fund an insurance to compensate the wronged clients of thieving lawyers. The dues are up almost 100 times what they were in 1970 when I was first made aware of this issue
fatfred

Interesting to know, fred.

It's probably pretty likely that they have such in other states too then.

I guess I can't be right about everything, eh?

Some political science professor here (Syracuse University) proposed the same thing a few years ago. His rationale was that doctors made too much money, based on hours worked versus gross income. Factors like the expenses of running an office, the foregone years of earning and debt for medical school never entered his little mind.

I quickly concluded that it was a very good thing for him that I did not have the power to choose between ridding the world of medical doctors or political science professors.

When there is an organization called, "Columnists Without Borders" doing good works around the world, then I'll give consideration to Lazarus' idea.

The idea of pro bono work is not unheard of for professionals.

Columnists are not licensed professionals, so it's easy for Lazarus to confuse doctors with plumbers or hairdressers. Although, I don't see him calling for pro bono perms for the poor.

Brian & Crid:

You guys crack me the fuck up. Do you 2 go at it about everything? Sometimes I have to stop and wonder if I'm on Amys site for her astute viewpoint or to LMAO reading you 2 going at it.

Either way you guys sure entertain the shit out of me.....

I have 3 lawyers in my immediate family, and neither carries malpractice insurance or is required to do pro-bono. And we cover 5 states they're liscensed in, collectively.

PAst that, this guy's an asshat. You can not force people to work for free. Especially when so many of them are already doing it, unwillingly.

Wait a minute. Isn't journalism, the 4th Estate, supposed to exist to serve the public good and enable democracy itself? Then why shouldn't newspapers and their journalists and columnists be required to give away some of the product, or work some time for free (to keep the cost of media down!)?

Good ol' forced altruism. That always motivates one to help their fellow man.

Brian and Crid:

Would you two just get married and be done with it?!

On Lazurus's reply:
"Actually, I'm content to do my volunteering in the classroom and at the food pantry."
Has it not occured to him that maybe doctors feel the same way?

Has it not occured to him that maybe doctors feel the same way?

Would he force truckers to donate truck-driving time? Or columnists to donate their words for another's gain?

Being forced to donate the labor or skills for which your earn your bread is the equivalent of being robbed of the fruits that labor.

Shouldn't it be candy stripers, not candy strippers?

Though the idea of forcing journalists to work as the latter sounds entertaining!

I can almost hear doctors packing for an exodus out of California from here. I wonder how many hospitals can open five feet away from the California/nevada state line...

Typical Pinko-Commie answer: "Well, we just have to FORCE them to work for free if they want their license here". Dint worked for Mao, Stalin or Pol-Pot. Why should it work for California?

Sad to say, I think this whole idea of forcing professionals to work for free as a condition of licensing is down the slipperly slope of the socialist college idea that in order to be a well rounded graduate that you must be forced to do "volunteer work" in order to receive a diploma, and the criminal justice idea that drunk driving classes and community service are a fine alternative to fines and jail time. These are nothing more than venues to try and get you to buy into the socialist political indoctrination gulags. ALL these programs make me gag. Isabel.

I have 3 lawyers in my immediate family, and neither carries malpractice insurance or is required to do pro-bono. And we cover 5 states they're liscensed in, collectively.

I checked, and this is correct. Pro bono work is not required by an bar association site I saw. It is strongly a part of the law firm cultures I know of. However, any professional practicing without insurance is really rolling the dice with his and his family's financial future.

> I'm content to do my volunteering
> in the classroom and at
> the food pantry.

1. Who gives a fuck what makes you content? Isn't one's personal 'contentment' exactly the thing that you're suggesting we take from doctors by force?

2. Alternatively, if a doctor, more expensively educated and –indisputably, I think– a higher-performing individual than any Los Angeles Times staffer, decided to be "content" with "volunteering in the classroom and at the food pantry", would you be satisfied? Isn't your point that the doctors owes more to us because of blessing that were given by an invisible hand directly to him, for you use as he sees fit?

3. If the claim you describe can in fact be made, how would his efforts be described as "volunteering"? Is this not obviously a tax?

4. At the very least, Lazarus... at the pathetic, anemic, VERY least... Shouldn't you be compelled to give service to your community by the same skills, efforts and responsibilities by which you earn a living, as would the doctors?

_________________________________

When liberals say things like that, do you think they really mean them? Or do they just drink too much sometimes?

On the other hand, it amounts to a tax. And it might be a more efficient way to tax things.

You could tax ten doctors, use that money to hire bureaucrats to hire a doctor to tend to the poor (as we do now)... OR just have one doctor working directly.

Like the barter system. But for taxes.

> crack me the fuck up

I thought it was funny the first three years, too. If you see any other names here expressing that much darkness and selfishness, and you think I've failed to comment on them, –men, women, commenters, bloggers, whoever– be sure and speak up.

(Sorry about typos— Nicole sees where I was headed)

And –last for the evening (probably)– I think this is a fundamentally liberal belief, that they personally can tell other individuals how their best selves will be expressed, and how their time must be spent.

Anyone have examples of conservatives who say "all tall guys should try out for basketball", etc?

If Lazarus' plan were initiated, and med school enrollments fell 35%, what would he think?

"If Lazarus' plan were initiated, and med school enrollments fell 35%, what would he think?"

He would thing that clearly the goverment had not done enough and that the government should do more, like paying for med school for aspiring doctors and then demanding that they work in the government health system till the cost of their education was paid off. That is how liberals think. The solution to the problems caused by governemt regulation is always more government involvement. Isabel

"However, any professional practicing without insurance is really rolling the dice with his and his family's financial future. "

Well, you may have me there. They are all corporate lawyers, so on a company payroll. Oil companies, in fact. We're doing our part to keep the country moving :) But I imagine they don't have the liability of independent lawyers who bill clients hourly.

But I imagine they don't have the liability of independent lawyers who bill clients hourly.

This is true; making lawyers who do that sort of corporate work personally liable for their work requires a much higher standard than your average attorney practicing for multiple clients in an LLP.

"Actually, I'm content to do my volunteering in the classroom and at the food pantry."

Good for you, you pompous windbag.

Now, since I volunteer in the classroom, the ball field, the synagogue, and donate to charity, can you leave me alone?

Oh, and since what I do involves an OR, with a team of nurses, techs, therapists, and support staff, should I ask/force them to "volunteer" their time and skill as a condition of employment?

Didn't think so....

"As a condition of licensing, a medical professional would be required to demonstrate that he or she treats at least a tenth of patients on a pro bono basis annually.."

*The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.* -- Ayn Rand