A600KiloBear, you wrote:
“BS”D
EVERY SINGLE frum doctor I know is in it for the parnosso and the “my son in law the doctor” prestige.
They admit it, though some regret it now because of de facto income caps through insurance reimbursement systems that do not make medicine all that attractive to parents of large families.”
I have several relatives who are physicians, and personally know about a dozen other frum physicians. None of them entered the medical field for the prestige; there is very little prestige in being bossed by nurses and bullied by attendings. All of the frum doctors I know chose the profession both to earn a living and to help others. Many of them do have large families; I know one frum physician with 15 children.
As other posters have noted, the best doctors (and many of the frum doctors I know are in this category) don’t just put in the minimum amount of work, but will put in the extra research/ consulting/ testing work required to diagnose the problem. Since doctors are not reimbursed for most of this work, they do this work to help their patients, not for the money.
And mybat, I’ve seen many physicians work for free. Whenever someone approaches a doctor on shabbos/ erev shabbos/ yom tov to have his kid’s ear examined for a possible infection, shift a child’s elbow/ shoulder back into place, or see if an ER visit is required, that doctor is working for free. When someone tells a doctor about his situation and the doctor advises whether a visit to a spcialist is required (and if so, which specialist), that doctor is working for free. Frum doctors do this frequently.
starwolf and Just-a-Guy said it more eloquently than I did, really, but I just wanted to add my personal experience observing practicing physicians.