Health: Slow Necrosis of Profession

Fewer and fewer people are going into the medical profession.  There is a worldwide shortage of Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists, Therapists.  Each one of these professions takes a significant amount of time, money and good ol’ fashioned brain power.

Unfortunately that’s the problem.  Because it takes brain power, money and time people just start to figure it’s not worth it.  Especially since a lot of health care professionals get the short end of the stick these days.  Spending years going through undergraduate, post graduate, professional for little incentive puts people off.

The fact is health professionals employed at lower levels or by the government just aren’t paid what they’re worth so many decide to go freelance or self employed.  That also is a problem for most because going self employed takes a giganormous (I know it’s not a word –let it be) amount of startup capital. 

Freelancing works but they don’t give you the same kind of benefits that permanent staff get (of course you get paid more than permanent staff –sans the benefits).

Self employed becomes a financially dangerous game to play because most people work on a medical aid scheme.  But the amount of money the medical aid is willing to shill out is finite.  Once it’s gone, it’s gone.  That means that they will no longer pay the health care professional for providing the same valued service.

There are still places in the world where these people and the service they can provide are in high regard and in high demand.  The Australasia section of the world is one such place.  These countries have a government run health care system that is funded by the people. 

They feel that a proper working health care system is an acceptable burden on the taxes.  They feel the same way about education and these governments give their citizens the opportunity for education regardless of socio-economic background.  They even subsidize educational funding up to 2/3rds the total amount.

We need to opt for change in our governments, our communities and ourselves to keep medical health care affordable and available.