Doctors Unionizing

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The NY Times (their pic above) put out a piece called “Doctors Unionize to Resist the Medical Machine” and it talks about a case where a particular group of hospitalists unionized against a hospital who was trying to outsource them.  I hope you get to read it but it really is nothing new.  It is about administrators controlling the game and playing with the minds of employed physicians.  The doctors are just sick of it and are fighting back.  Do I think we all should unionize?  No.  I don’t even think doctors should be employed by hospitals.  It is an unholy matrimony where docs are seduced by cash and the hospital is seduced by the thought of getting our patients.  After they get the patients they just need bodies to see them.  Doctors are nothing more to them than bodies.  Having a union just creates new problems.  Being free from the shackles of the hospital allows doctors to do what’s right for the patient, to be paid by the patient and to be able to push back against the medical machine.  That is the ultimate fix, in my humble opinion.  Actually, I am not that humble.