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I'd be interested to combine these charts with some other data that might be related, such as doctors' student loan and mortgage debt, per capita income, waitin

I'd be interested to combine these charts with some other data that might be related, such as doctors' student loan and mortgage debt, per capita income, waiting times for various procedures, and maybe even a measure of how many citizens there are per doctor (as a way of determining relative barriers to entry for medical professionals). I don't really have a good sense about how all of those things stack up in other places, but I suspect the U.S. would be an outlier in some of those as well.

dlo 14y ago
I believe you are making the assumption that doctors are pocketing this money (or at least much of it). I am not saying that you are wrong, but I am saying that you need to identify this as an assumption and re-examine it. (As it turns out, you are wrong, but I don't have time to go into it right now :-P.)
- aethertap 14y ago
  Actually I'm not making any assumptions (hence the reason I would like to see the data stacked up together). I don't know what it would look like, but I enjoy exploring ideas like that. I actually do know, in at least two cases, that the doctors aren't pocketing the money (the doctor friends I know are going to be living paycheck to paycheck for several years as they deal with the huge debts they incurred in the process of becoming doctors). The question I'm most interested in exploring with the above data is this: what are the relative costs and barriers to entry for medical professionals in all of these countries? It's my impression (could be profoundly wrong for all I know) that they are exceptionally high in the U.S., and if that is the case, then it would be a contributing factor to the high costs. There are obviously many other contributing factors, and I'm not proposing solutions here, just curiosity. I think you read more into my query that I meant to convey- I have nothing against doctors, or even against doctors making tons of money. I don't particularly like the disconnect between people and the prices of their medical care that happens as a result of our insurance model and I think that's also a major contributing factor to high prices. As you say, though, I don't really want to go into that here.

dlo 14y ago

I believe you are making the assumption that doctors are pocketing this money (or at least much of it). I am not saying that you are wrong, but I am saying that you need to identify this as an assumption and re-examine it. (As it turns out, you are wrong, but I don't have time to go into it right now :-P.)

aethertap 14y ago
Actually I'm not making any assumptions (hence the reason I would like to see the data stacked up together). I don't know what it would look like, but I enjoy exploring ideas like that. I actually do know, in at least two cases, that the doctors aren't pocketing the money (the doctor friends I know are going to be living paycheck to paycheck for several years as they deal with the huge debts they incurred in the process of becoming doctors). The question I'm most interested in exploring with the above data is this: what are the relative costs and barriers to entry for medical professionals in all of these countries? It's my impression (could be profoundly wrong for all I know) that they are exceptionally high in the U.S., and if that is the case, then it would be a contributing factor to the high costs. There are obviously many other contributing factors, and I'm not proposing solutions here, just curiosity. I think you read more into my query that I meant to convey- I have nothing against doctors, or even against doctors making tons of money. I don't particularly like the disconnect between people and the prices of their medical care that happens as a result of our insurance model and I think that's also a major contributing factor to high prices. As you say, though, I don't really want to go into that here.