Are U.S. Doctors Paid Too Much?
The average annual income for a primary-care doctor surpasses $186,000. U.S. orthopedic surgeons make $442,450 on average. Both figures are substantially higher than the median income in this country — and as much as double the salaries of their foreign counterparts. But U.S. doctors also must spend about 40,000 hours on their education. Loans accumulated through college and medical school can reach $300,527 and take more than 20 years to pay off — depriving a doctor of $788,880 in net income, according to the calculations of physician/author Ben Brown.
Even among their peers, American doctors have a tough row to hoe. Education costs in the other five countries examined by the Columbia study — Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom— are lower than in America. In the United Kingdom, for example, medical students pay about $5,000 a year. At American medical schools, tuition and fees run anywhere from four to 10 times as much. Once U.S. doctors complete their education, the workload doesn’t ease. The average physician works 59.6 hours each week — the equivalent of one and a half full-time jobs.
We have to make it easier to become a medical provider (MD, PA, NP, RN, LPN etc.) in the USA.
Possibly… but it’s impossible to say with any certainty how much doctors should make. By allowing the profession to capture the regulators nearly a century ago, the profession was able to require licensure rather than mere certification. By closing down rival medical schools, the supply of competing physicians was limited. This all had the effect of creating a monopoly position. Third party payment exacerbates this arrangement in ways that are both good and bad for physicians.
Until we have a free market with fewer regulations, how can we know how much a physician is worth?
As long as we’re making decisions about who gets paid too much: Senators, union bosses and Michael Moore should be on the list.
From looking at this list of the top 10 medical schools in the world, 6 out of 10 are located in the U.S. I imagine that an expanded list would include a high proportion of U.S. medical schools. Is it all worth it for the higher compensation? hard to say
http://www.physicianjobscanada.com/a-list-of-the-best-medical-schools-in-the-world
The figures for physicians’ earnings are more properly defined as gross income, rather than wages. They pay office expenses, staff expenses, med-mal insurance premiums, etc.
Plus, it is equally (or more) relevent to compare incomes for different professions within the U.S., rather than incomes for doctors internationally. If higher educated people in other professions also earn 5 times the median income, doctors’ pay is not out of whack.