Doom update...

Ok, so I did a bunch more research about how the future of healthcare will affect me. Here are my conclusions:
The thing that is scaring everyone is the concept of "universal healthcare". This type of system is employed in all modernized western economies except the US. The basic concept (from what I could gather) is that the government will cover the costs of healthcare for all individuals in the nation. There are so many opinions flying around out there that I'm not even going to touch on whether this is a good idea or not. I'll just mention what things I learned that might affect me as a future Med Student.
1st: there is a general consensus that MD salaries will drop in a universal healthcare system. In western Europe salaries are less than half of what they are in the U.S. That would put salaries at around 80 to 100k a year. Everybody shouts that you shouldn't care about money at all if you want to be a doctor. But the way I see it is that anyone who truly didn't care about money and just want to help people could work as a CNA, EMT, or Medical Assistant and be very happy for the rest of their lives. Salary does make a difference. It is not my motivation for going into medicine, but it is part of the motivation for me going all the way to getting an MD.
2nd: Doctors might have less flexibility due to the fact that they would probably all be getting paid the same as each other. No added benefit for being really good or for going into a really hard specialty. Bad doctors would get the same amount of money as good doctors.
3rd: It will be really hard for Obama to pull this off. Most democratic presidents have tried to do this. All of them failed. And they also didn't happen to have an economic mess on their hands. Odds are there will be changes, but not to full blown universal healthcare.

If you want to learn more go on google and type in "universal healthcare affects doctors". You'll see plenty of different pages with interesting information. My conclusion:

A lot of fear is thinning the amount of competition heading towards medical school. Chances are there will be no sweeping changes anyway. I know I want to go into medicine so I might as well go for MD since I believe I can make it and I know I would like it. My love of caring for other people shouldn't hinge too much on government policy and income. Still going for it!