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Comment by JamesBarney | Hacker News Reader

They are overworking because they have a lobbying organization that limits the number of doctors.

This leads to higher pay and more work.

Doctor pay-per-hour-worked varies a lot by specialty. My wife gets $270k/yr on her current contract after max bonuses and paying for malpractice insurance. That comes out to about $60/hr. this is in a mid col city in the USA.

That’s in no way bad money, but per hour worked PAs and many nurses make more than that. When I worked IT support I was paid close to that. It doesn’t at all seem worth the pain.

That sounds like rough gig, but overall they are still the highest paid profession in the US by far.

What percent of doctors do you think contribute to the lobbying organization or agree with its direction?

Enough there is no counter-AMA organization anywhere close to the same size.

AMA membership by physicians have dropped from 75% in the 1950's to about 15% a few years ago. Doctors are actually not that great at advocacy which is the main reason why counter-AMA organizations don't exist imo.

A large chunk of their membership is just medical students and residents but thats primarily because they offer good savings to them like study materials.

The AMA does not represent physicians.

Which lobbying organization is that? If you're referring to the AMA then you're wrong. They have actually been lobbying Congress to increase the number of physicians by funding more residency slots.

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