7 ms·
I will bring up one point. The wages medical practitioners make are generally higher in the US. So the cost of medical care is higher. I live in Belgium, mostl
by charlesdm 8y ago
I will bring up one point. The wages medical practitioners make are generally higher in the US. So the cost of medical care is higher.
I live in Belgium, mostly good and free healthcare (barring payment of a few euros here and there). I have 3 cousins who are (or are studying to become) doctors and while specialised doctors can make decent money (€75 -> 450k), they don't come anywhere close to what a US based doctor might be making.
Someone making between $1 to 2m in the US (e.g. certain surgeons) might "only" be making $300 - 400k here. And the quality level is exactly the same.
- titzer 8y agoThat's a good point, but not the only reason. The insurance industry extracts a big profit margin by just moving money from one risk pool to another, and that profit has to come from somewhere, so, costs go up. It's inevitable.
- travoc 8y agoU.S. health insurers have an average profit rate of 3.1%. Does that sound massive to you?
- titzer 8y agoThat's their profit. We are all paying for their operating costs as well.
- beguiledfoil 8y agoThe whole healthcare provider<->insurer interface is hugely expensive. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/in-the-literature/2014/sep/hospital-administrative-costs http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/in-the-literatu...
- falsedan 8y agoThat's the same as Amazon's!
- malnourish 8y agoShould healthcare be a for-profit venture?
- pyvpx 8y agoit has little to do with the pay of doctors and everything to do with health care administration costs, and insurance companies extracting as much profit as possible.
- ttul 8y agoThis is not the reason US healthcare is costly. Canadian doctors do very well - there isn't much incentive to work south of the border. The reason US healthcare is expensive is because you have multiple payors and a ridiculously complex web of rules for everyone to navigate.
- refurb 8y agoWages certainly are a contributing factor to the cost of US healthcare. Canadian physician salaries are high by any normal standard, but still much lower than US salaries, especially when you get into specialties.
- code_duck 8y agoIf you were to break down the charges from a surgery, the portion that goes to the surgeons salary is rather small, and particularly the portion that might be the difference between EU and US salaries. I think differences in charges for things like prescription drugs make a much higher impact.
- samiam27 8y agoThe other difference. Training in the US to become a doctor costs hundreds of thousands of dollars up to 1M. In your country it is free.