Vaccines Make Money

I have long suspected that general practitioners in the medical field, the once-cozy Family Doctor having morphed into the more serious-sounding Primary Care Physician (PCP), are now little more than dispensers of prescription drugs, diagnostic tests and vaccines. By the time the typical patient arrives at the doctor's office, he or she has likely Googled the symptoms of what ails them and could probably tell the doctor a thing or two.

After addressing whatever problem brought me there in the first place, my doctor will recite a list of the shots I need: seasonal flu, Covid booster, pneumonia, shingles (two shots) and RSV.  I'm no anti-vaxxer, being a solemn believer in the flu shot for the last 15 years, but COVID is a different story, one that I am right to suspect as frivolous. Still, I never suspected that my friendly, smiling PCP can actually profit off selling the COVID vaccine and boosters he so persistently hawks during my visit. 

Below is a chart showing just how much a physician might earn (from one insurance carrier) for selling the so-called "jab." But remember, don't call it a payoff, it's an incentive.