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Originally Posted by AltaGuy
Still wondering why we're really so concerned with teachers when family doctors appear to do almost nothing and are paid three times the amount.
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Neither of those are true, though. I was married to a family doc for many years. She worked 5 days a week, long hours. Spend 1 - 2 hours every evening doing charts before she could come home. Was on call at least one or two days every week, and many weekends. Nearly every Christmas for the first few years we were married she was at the hospital delivering babies. I used to take her a paper plate of turkey and mashed potatoes to eat in the hall in between deliveries. I can't count the amount of times I woke up at 2:00 AM to find her gone to the hospital for a delivery.
Out of total billings she had to run an office, pay a nurse, pay a receptionist, and pay incredible amounts for insurance - over $12K per year 20 years ago just for additional insurance required to do deliveries. If we went on holidays she had to pay another doctor to take over her practice. No benefits, and no retirement plan.
At the end of the day she made ok money, but not nearly what people always believed she made.
Couple of interesting facts - the fee schedule she billed off in the 1990s was basically the same schedule that doctors billed in the 1970s. She got $220 to deliver a baby, including pre and post delivery appointments. Very often patients would privately hire massage therapists or mid wives to be present at the delivery that would get paid hundreds of dollars more.
But this is about teachers. I'll leave now.