Many leaders worry that attracting competent physicians will become more difficult as pay continues to decline.
Sheldon Taub, MD, gastroenterologist at Jupiter (Fla.) Medical Center, joined Becker's to discuss the dangers of declining physician pay.
Question: What are the dangers of declining physician pay?
Editor's note: This response was edited lightly for length and clarity.
Sheldon Taub: How does the government expect to attract knowledgeable, competent people to the medical profession when part of the incentive, that is adequate compensation, is being jeopardized? Certainly, part of the incentive of going into medicine is to administer quality healthcare and improve mankind. However, I fear that motivation is dissipating since taking on an enormous financial debt to achieve that goal is becoming harder and harder to accept. The solution to me is pretty obvious: Adequately compensate physicians and allied healthcare personnel for the healthcare they provide. Basically, give these people a bigger piece of the "healthcare pie."