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>> Well, physicians have to be paid accordingly for their time and financial investment... Baker estimates that the salaries of the roughly one million doctors
by criley2 3y ago
>> Well, physicians have to be paid accordingly for their time and financial investment... Baker estimates that the salaries of the roughly one million doctors in the U.S. account for about eight percent of total healthcare spending.
This is exactly the attitude as to how American costs are out of control. If American healthcare budget was halved (which is still much more per person than other nations), then physician salaries would be 16% of the total. If American healthcare budget was a quarter of its current total (in line with many other nations spending), then physician pay would be 1/3 (32%) of the entire spend!
Clearly, if American healthcare is going to see a 1/2 or even 3/4 cost cut as the proponents of universal/single payer healthcare predict, then physician pay must take a similarly massive cut.
Just as you can find reasons why physicians cannot take a pay cut, so too can every slice of the pie claim that their slice is valid and uncuttable.
- adgjlsfhk1 3y agoisn't it pretty reasonable for physician pay to be a really large percentage of healthcare? expertise isn't cheap.
- criley2 3y agoIf it's reasonable AND doable than why don't physicians in the fabled successful single payer systems get paid more? Why does just about every doctor in every universal system make dramatically less than their American counterpart? Is their expertise worth less?
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoEven now becoming a doctor is a dubious financial trade off in the states. Medical school and residency is going to take a huge toll, you’ll be underwater a long time before that $350k comes in. However, a SWE can make that without such an investment and without such a crazy work life. So now reduce that to $200k but with all the same medical school debt and stress requirements. A lot of areas already have trouble attracting doctors at all because they can’t compete with the money offered by bigger richer cities. If you want cheaper doctors, something else will have to give, or supply will just plummet.