<p>I've never heard of a bankrupt doctor or anything of that kind? Is it true if you want to live a better life and more safer guarantee to financial security, medicine holds the key? Is it true in some fields where you can practice right away like Dentistry or Pharmacy?</p>
<p>Nursing is recession proof. My mom is a Home-Health Nurse that works for two companies. Just recently she quit one of her jobs because they weren’t paying enough, and got a new higher paying one as fast as she quit her old one. Even in the midst of an economic crisis, she was able to quit her job and find a better one just like that.</p>
<p>As for other medicial fields, I don’t really think they’re affected too much by a recession. People are always going to get sick, so we’ll always need Doctors and Pharmacists. Although I don’t know much about economics anyway…</p>
<p>On the whole healthcare generally weathers poor economic times quite well, but it’s not “recession proof.” There are certainly some areas that can hurt quite bad… especially those in private practice and/or performing procedures not fully covered by insurance. </p>
<p>My dentist griped during my last visit about his patient volume going down a lot as people lost their insurance they no longer come in for their bi-annual cleanings (the bread and butter of a dental practice). In a private practice that translates directly into a big income hit.</p>
<p>Doctors go bankrupt sometimes; that has more to do with spending than with income. Health fields generally manage economic difficulties relatively well, but it also means they don’t do as well as other fields during economic booms either.</p>
<p>More to the point, doctors are more dependent on government decisionmaking than most other fields are. If Medicare decides to cut reimbursements, the entire field will take a blow. That’s something that some other sectors aren’t vulnerable to.</p>
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<p>Doctors, in general, do not set their own fees – insurance companies do. At present, medicare reimbursement does not cover the cost of seeing patients. As a result, no self-supporting physician can afford to have a 100% medicare practice. Most insurance companies pay better than medicare, but many insurance companies base their reimbursement on the medicare fee schedule - typically medicare plus 10-20%.</p>
<p>Physicians fear the “public option” because it would likely be medicare plus 5% with mandatory participation for all medicare providers.</p>
<p>this doesn’t apply to dentists tho, doesn’t it because dentists face a less chance of malpractice suits right? and most dentists still have a solid amount of clientele to be stable right?</p>
<p>Dental practice differs from medical practice in several important ways: first, most dental care is paid in cash by patients, so dental income is largely independent of the vagaries of insurance decisions; second, many patients of limited means will defer dental care to very late stages (not possible with many medical and surgical conditions); third, the inexpensive option of pulling a tooth solves many expensive problems.</p>
<p>Malpractice concerns exist for dentists also.</p>