Underestimate what, CRna's practice independently of MDA's in underserved areas purely for a financial reasons, you are cheaper since your malpractice is $15k less. When you start costing those hospitals the same as doctors, you will only keep your positions out of pure availablities reasons. YOU ARE NOT DOCTORS you are nurses with masters degree, even if the surgeons love you it does not change that fact. And read your history, the first providers of anesthesia were medical students or other doctors, then in the military, nurses were utilized which spread into main stream healthcare once again due to availability. Make no mistake, i don't doubt for a minute that there will be CRNA's who fight AA's for as long as possible, but understand this, we will fight back, and we do have the ASA backing us since too many CRNA's have been under the illusion of being better that someone with more than double the training.(MDA's) As for your obviously uneducated comments about why we don't work in all 50 states, well let's see why that is, hundreds of thousands of dollars from CRNA's into lobbyists pushing bills against AA's, the spread of lies about our training and abilities, and simply a lack of large numbers of AA's to move into the 50 states to open them. But don't worry, with more schools opening, and more backing from the ASA, there will be more of us coming to your state, more MDA's will learn about us and finally have the option of hiring us instead of just giving you raises every time you complain about having too much call or having to work too much. Trust me, say what you want, we aren't going away. Your job is in no danger from us but we will stabilize the market that has been skyrocketing for the past 10-15 years. And last of all, the public is vastly ignorant about what the difference between an anesthesiologist, CRNA or AA is, thus why you trash talk AA's so much. Unfortunately for you and other CRNA's who have some insecurity about not being the big cheese, No one will every want a nurse over a doctor and as they learn more about the team approach they will prefer that over just a nurse.