You’re absolutely right about the CMO position on a star ship. They are responsible for the overall health of the crew, and it would not be uncommon for the doctor to review the latest completed mission with captain, which would coincide with the end of each episode of TOS in which Bones was on the bridge joking around with the crew. At that the CMO might also work with the captain to prepare for the next mission, making his presence on the bridge legitimized. Here is what the Star Trek Wiki has to say about CMOs – http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Chief_medical_officer

Of course that all being said, the fact that I made a post linking Star Trek to money and then commented that someone was robbing the entertainment value of the post points out to most readers that no one should try to formulate an opinion on health care based on the post. Only those of us sharp as a bowling ball would be offended by anything in this post.

You’re obviously passionate about the health care subject however I believe you have chosen the wrong forum in which to express yourself. This was a joke, and in the words of Family Guy I pronounce you Buzz Killington http://familyguy.wikia.com/wiki/Buzz_Killington

Thanks everyone for the comments, but since now the entertainment value of this post is completely robbed I’m closing the comments. If you have something else to say, please email me at philip *at* thisdomain *dot* com.

What you’ve said, if taken as anything more than a joke, could be seen as unbelievably offensive to some of the hardest working people in public service. While private doctors often work 9 to 5, and then head out for some golf because they’ve earned their paycheque, leaving the hospital trust doctors to provide night shift care, free-at-point of-service doctors work longer hours, generally for less money per hour. They do more on call work, they have to deal with more paperwork, they can’t cherry-pick their patients, and overall they work harder than you can possibly imagine.
And if the Enterprise wasn’t free-at-point-of-service work, once they’d performed the most basic stabilisation of a patient, they’d have to check his insurance before letting him recover. And if it wasn’t up to snuff, they’d chuck him out the airlock. Ironically, in any sea vessel is the one place where people ABSOLUTELY believe in “free-at-point-of-service”.

Your statement promotes a fallacy about reward-based economics that’s pretty ridiculous “Oh, well if people who don’t care get paid, they do more”; a statement YOU attack with your final point, and which has been proven time and time again to be fallacious by economic studies, and is usually replaced with “If people who don’t care get paid, they do just enough to get paid.” How would McCoy being in Sickbay studying affect his paycheque? *All* doctors have to study just to keep their licence to practice, financial motivators have nothing to do with it.

And on top of all that, if you knew anything about hospitals, you’d know that the Chief of Medicine spends far less time with patients than most doctors, because his job is to liase with the shareholders/administrators, so he can better prepare and support his staff to do their job. So actually, McCoy’s hanging out on the bridge is actually him ensuring he’s aware of what will be coming up that he needs to be ready for, and ensuring Jim’s aware of Medical’s needs.

Weakonomics indeed. Good day, sir. I SAID GOOD DAY!

Beat that.

Last I heard, dilithium crystals are also fetching a good price now.

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