How many of you think that veterinary care is too expenisve?

This is sort of an extrapolation of my earlier question. And a bit of a soap box, but really, do you find veterinary care overpriced?

If you answered yes, were you aware that veterinarians complet 8–11 years of education (4 years of undergraduate, 4 years of vet school, and 2–3 years for each specialty)? Did you know that these schools are more competitve than medical school and have comparable costs (the average vet school graduate leaves school with >$120,000 in loan debt)?

If you answered yes, do you know that the diagnositc tests, testing equipment, monitoring equipment, ICU equipment, surgical equipment,and drugs are exactly the same things used in human medicine? (Everything from IV lines to fluid pumps to ultrasound machines to x-ray machines to endoscopy equipment to heart rate monitors to…well, you get the idea.)

If you answered yes, do you realize that a veterinary technician acts as a triage nurse, phlebotomist, anesthesiolgist, radiology tech, scrub nurse, a lab tech, ICU nurse, inventory manager, educator, grief counselor, poop-cleaner-upper and target for land sharks (patients who try thier best to bite)? And yet they get paid a median income of $29,710.00 ?

I guess my point is that in a comparison to human medicine, the veterinary field gets short shrift. We’re held to a pretty high standard of care and incur remarkable costs, and yet get paid a fraction for comparable work. Why is that? Is human medicine overpriced so much, or are pets valued so poorly? And if so, then why the high standards for care?