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The xrays are probably almost identical. The difference is that dentists simply charge much more in the United States. The median dentist salary in the US is ab
by chadash 9y ago
The xrays are probably almost identical. The difference is that dentists simply charge much more in the United States. The median dentist salary in the US is about $150,000 [1]. In India, the median dentist salary is 344,000 INR, or about $5,250.
Some of this can be attributed to general differences in labor costs between the US and India. With few exceptions, most service industries in India are going to charge less because it's not as wealthy of a country. However, the biggest difference is that Americans are simply used to paying absurd amounts for medical care of any sort. There are a variety of factors at play, including strict limits on the number of dentists graduating each year, dental insurance coverage (most dental insurance plans cover x-rays, so people with insurance tend not to consider the cost), etc.
[1] http://www1.salary.com/Dentist-Salary.html http://www1.salary.com/Dentist-Salary.html
[2] https://www.payscale.com/research/IN/Job=Dentist/Salary https://www.payscale.com/research/IN/Job=Dentist/Salary
- sp332 9y agoI was thinking of this a couple of days ago when an uninsured person got an estimate of $25,000 for dental surgery. https://twitter.com/ForgetAmnesia/status/912456274532585472 https://twitter.com/ForgetAmnesia/status/912456274532585472 https://twitter.com/ForgetAmnesia/status/912369049958584320 https://twitter.com/ForgetAmnesia/status/912369049958584320 I wonder if the increasing specialization is driving costs up too. If you have fewer patients you might feel pressure to charge each one more instead of admitting that you picked too small a niche.
- zerohm 9y agoAlso, all the operational overhead in that US dentist office will cost more than the Indian side. The secretary, the assistant, the building lease, etc. (I'm not saying that we can't fix the problem of overpriced healthcare, I'm just saying it's a contributing factor) Strangely though, the US enjoys lower prices for consumer goods like fashion brands, and consumer electronics. Nike shoes and a Sony TV will be more expensive in India than the US.
- jogjayr 9y ago> Strangely though, the US enjoys lower prices for consumer goods like fashion brands, and consumer electronics. Nike shoes and a Sony TV will be more expensive in India than the US. That's not strange at all. India has import duties on many goods, especially electronics.
- oli89 9y agoWhat does the iPhone cost in India? Has Apple subsidized it?
- KGIII 9y agoRs. 24,490. About $380 USD. Prices as of September 2017, currency conversion via Google on today's date and time.
- codegeek 9y agowhere do u see a new iphone for that price in India ? For Iphone 7, I am seeing at least $1000 USD when converted from INR. Officially on Apple website. https://www.apple.com/in/iphone-7/specs/ https://www.apple.com/in/iphone-7/specs/
- KGIII 9y agoIt was the 6s which I mistakenly read as the 7s. http://pricebaba.com/mobile/pricelist/apple-price-list http://pricebaba.com/mobile/pricelist/apple-price-list My bad.
- tosaket 9y agoIt is the opposite. iPhone costs at least 20% more in India.
- nickbauman 9y ago
- KGIII 9y agoIt absolutely shouldn't account for such a large discrepancy, but is the level of expertise the same? I would also expect that the US dentist has paid much more for their education. Did the US dentist go to school longer? As I said, I'm sure they paid more. Is the US dentist more skilled at their job? Are the requirements to practice dentistry lower in India? Are the results better or worse in India? You also mentioned the lower wealth in India. There is also a lower standard of living cost. Costs for products and services have long-since been decoupled from expenses and people charge what they think the market will bear. Also, is there a greater supply of dentists? My understanding is that the AMA artificially limits the supply of medical doctors, but I'm not sure about dentistry. I also have no idea what it's like in India. Given what little I know of the situation, I suspect I'd support the idea of Indian dentists making more money, not US dentists making less money. I believe teachers and medical professionals should be well paid. $150,000/year isn't that much. We have programmers who make larger salaries, and they don't even give me a free toothbrush. Edit: Google tells me that the average salary in India is $616, so the average Indian dentist makes about 8.5x the average income. That's about $225,000 in the US.
- jimmies 9y ago>Did the US dentist go to school longer? As I said, I'm sure they paid more. Is the US dentist more skilled at their job? Are the requirements to practice dentistry lower in India? Are the results better or worse in India? I assume the phrase "no amount of safety is enough" when it comes to health care is a false statement, it's an economic problem: Am I/is the population willing to pay 1000% (10x) more for say, 2% to 1% (2x) improvement chance in the person fucking up my teeth? With that in mind, I wonder is going to school for a long time necessary? I think we have a return-on-investment curve (or time in school vs chance that the person fucks up) that plateaus at some point here. Maybe it plateaus where the Indian requirement is, and people in the US stay in school too long for very little returns.
- KGIII 9y agoI'd say that safety certainly has a price point where people will change their minds, even if they don't want to admit it.
- sorenjan 9y agoFor comparison the median salary for dentists in Sweden is $51 500 [0]. The reason for the high salary in the US is not the expensive education ($100 000 extra per year buys a lot of education), it's the high income inequality [1]. The expensive health care with few incentives to lower the prices of course helps. [0] http://www.lonestatistik.se/loner.asp/yrke/Tandlakare-1241 http://www.lonestatistik.se/loner.asp/yrke/Tandlakare-1241 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...
- creaghpatr 9y agoI'd like to add: -malpractice insurance -administration/documentation costs The procedure price in the US has to account for filing the claim, issuing the patient an EOB, then going through the adjudication process, then finally billing the patient for the copay/deductible payment, a percent of which will likely have to be written off.
- highd 9y agoI don't think "high income inequality" is much of an explanation for why someone has high income...
- Klockan 9y agoIt is certainly a part of it, McDonalds workers earn about twice as much in Sweden as in the US. There is no good reason why a dentist should earn 10 times as much as a McDonalds worker, people still work hard to get those jobs even when they just pay 2-3 times as much like in Sweden.
- cisanti 9y agoI'm sure the dentist worked harder to become one, or has more talent, to make 10x more than McDonald's worker. The latter can be done by anyone... It's absurd to compare the two...
- 9y ago
- nickbauman 9y agoI have been considering medical tourism for this reason. But moreover, I see doctors responding to the strangulation of the sector by insurance companies by offering less care for more money. I can go to Costa Rica and get a lot of things sorted for a fraction of the costs and many of the doctors are trained in the US anyway.
- zaptheimpaler 9y agoIt doesn't make sense to compare salaries between US & India on a US$ perspective. Indian salaries are lower in terms of USD, but the cost of living is also lower - basically the 5$ USD meal at McDonalds in US costs maybe 1$ USD in India. If you are paid "less", but everyone else is paid "less" too, then goods/services are cheaper - so the actual goods/services you can purchase will be the same for a much lower salary in India. Lookup purchasing power parity. It might be more sensible to compare how much more dentists make than the average income. i.e Average dentists salary / average salary. For US I get - 175350/55775 ~ 3x For India its 8.5x So dentists are probably pretty well paid in terms of the standard of living they can purchase.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- potlee 9y agoIt does make sense to compare them on a USD basis if you trying to figure out what causes a 10x difference in x-ray cost between the U.S. and India (in USD)
- refulgentis 9y agoUnfortunately, no. Purchasing power differs across economies. While exchange rate correlates with purchasing power, it's merely a rough measurement, not something you'd base analysis on.
- zaptheimpaler 9y agoRead up on purchasing power. Purchasing power is what your money can buy, which is the more correct measure. Its the same reason it doesn't make sense to directly compare programmers salaries in San Francisco vs. Pittsburgh. If (made up numbers) 120K$ in SF buys the same lifestyle as 90K$ in Pittsburgh, it means someone making 120K in SF is roughly as wealthy as someone making 90K in Pittsburgh. Certainly saying that the SF programmers make 1.3x more is true, but the more fundamental question is the lifestyle that the income affords you.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- credit_guy 9y agoIn my case most often it’s a hygienist who takes the x-rays, not the dentist. But even assuming it’s the dentist, and the dentist is paid at 200k/y, that translates into $100 per hour or about $1.7 per minute. It never takes more than 10 min to do the x-rays, so the labor cost of a set of x-rays can be at most $20, most likely much lower.