What signal does it send?

Today our President tapped a very intelligent and able doctor for the position of Surgeon General. My question is: What message does this send as to the direction of our country?

Dr. Regina Benjamin gave up making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in a big city to start a practice in a small town. Dr. Benjamin would routinely provide free care to patients who could not afford to pay her. This is incredibly admirable and certainly Dr. Benjamin is a person that should be held in high esteem.

All of Dr. Benjamin's accolades aside, what message does this send to the rest of our country? Now more than ever our future doctors are graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from an education system who's price is ever increasing. Doctors are faced with the constant threat of lawsuit and tasked with the pressure of saving our lives and working flawlessly under duress. Today our President taps a doctor who was introduced as a model doctor because she provides free healthcare. I understand becoming a doctor for the betterment of society but you can't expect salary not to play a role. What incentive do our doctors have now a days? Since President Obama expects our doctors to provide free healthcare to those who can't afford it is he going to cover the tuition bills for those doctors that have graduated, or will graduate? Would you go hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to be told you should model yourself after a person who has provided her services free?

There is no doubt that insurance companies are abusing the system and there needs to be an overhaul but we are sending the wrong signals to our young doctors. Everyday the American population gets older and the doctor to patient ratio keeps dropping. Maybe we should stick to the formula that has worked for the last 300 or so years. Maybe President Obama should look into protecting those big, bad healthcare professionals too, you know those people that are saving our lives day in and day out.