4 ms·

Boo effing hoo, my brother is ~300K in debt and making 60K a year at 31, and now is considering leaving medicine. I don't see why I'm supposed to feel sorry fo

Boo effing hoo, my brother is ~300K in debt and making 60K a year at 31, and now is considering leaving medicine. I don't see why I'm supposed to feel sorry for hospitals here.

vikramkr 6y ago
You look at how much McKinsey will pay you and look at how much money corporate pays, and it becomes a tough deal to stay in medicine if you're even a bit financially motivated. Schools like NYUs new free med school and adaptations like nurse practitioners for primary care are the only way this field will survive.
- 3pt14159 6y ago
  This is really surprising to me as a Canadian. I was told that doctors in the States earn way more than doctors here.
  - vikramkr 6y ago
    Way more debt + years of residency to let that debt pile on makes earning more in the end irrelevant. And you can only really be financially free in a few specialties that pay you enough. If you become a primary care doctor, you're only making 160k a year. You can make more in areas where doctors are in short supply. That's not enough to pay off 300k in debt compounding at 7-8% a year for years before you can start paying into it, especially when you also have to pay 7500+ a year in malpractice insurance costs. You've also spent so long getting tot hat point that you're probably around 31 years old, meaning you might be starting a young family around then and cant fit everyone in a cheap studio apartment anymore.
    - BeetleB 6y ago
      > If you become a primary care doctor, you're only making 160k a year. There are many more lucrative choices than PCP that don't require specialization. A friend of mine was making $250-350K/yr as a hospitalist - no specialization needed. Just the usual 3 years of residency. The real issue is that doctors don't want to live where the work is lucrative (rural areas in Midwest, etc).
  - treis 6y ago
    Doctors (especially disgruntled ones) have it in their minds that they'd all be at Google or a hedge fund or white shoe consultancy making bank if they hadn't become a doctor. They consider themselves underpaid because they compare themselves to the best paid jobs out there. Of course most of them probably wouldn't make it to those levels but that inconvenient truth is ignored.
  - nelblu 6y ago
    60K a year is more like a salary for a resident. My friend made approx 60k a year for 4years of residency and one year of fellow ship and then his first job paid him 250k a year. He even had an offer for approx 400K a year from an unethical private clinic which was abusing insurance so he didn't take that job. So yes, doctors in US make a ton of money compared to here in Canada.

Boo effing hoo, my brother is ~300K in debt and making 60K a year at 31, and now is considering leaving medicine. I don't see why I'm supposed to feel sorry for hospitals here.

vikramkr 6y ago

You look at how much McKinsey will pay you and look at how much money corporate pays, and it becomes a tough deal to stay in medicine if you're even a bit financially motivated. Schools like NYUs new free med school and adaptations like nurse practitioners for primary care are the only way this field will survive.

3pt14159 6y ago
This is really surprising to me as a Canadian. I was told that doctors in the States earn way more than doctors here.
- vikramkr 6y ago
  Way more debt + years of residency to let that debt pile on makes earning more in the end irrelevant. And you can only really be financially free in a few specialties that pay you enough. If you become a primary care doctor, you're only making 160k a year. You can make more in areas where doctors are in short supply. That's not enough to pay off 300k in debt compounding at 7-8% a year for years before you can start paying into it, especially when you also have to pay 7500+ a year in malpractice insurance costs. You've also spent so long getting tot hat point that you're probably around 31 years old, meaning you might be starting a young family around then and cant fit everyone in a cheap studio apartment anymore.
  - BeetleB 6y ago
    > If you become a primary care doctor, you're only making 160k a year. There are many more lucrative choices than PCP that don't require specialization. A friend of mine was making $250-350K/yr as a hospitalist - no specialization needed. Just the usual 3 years of residency. The real issue is that doctors don't want to live where the work is lucrative (rural areas in Midwest, etc).
- treis 6y ago
  Doctors (especially disgruntled ones) have it in their minds that they'd all be at Google or a hedge fund or white shoe consultancy making bank if they hadn't become a doctor. They consider themselves underpaid because they compare themselves to the best paid jobs out there. Of course most of them probably wouldn't make it to those levels but that inconvenient truth is ignored.
- nelblu 6y ago
  60K a year is more like a salary for a resident. My friend made approx 60k a year for 4years of residency and one year of fellow ship and then his first job paid him 250k a year. He even had an offer for approx 400K a year from an unethical private clinic which was abusing insurance so he didn't take that job. So yes, doctors in US make a ton of money compared to here in Canada.