When economists published revealing data about doctor salaries, the backlash was intense. Why? And why do doctors earn so much more in America than in other countries?
12 years of college + internship?
It’s a minimum of 4 years undergrad and 4 years of med school. Then indentured servitude as an intern, resident, and fellow which can add up to at least 3 years, but usually more than that. As a post-grad you work long hours for usually around minimum wage and doing all of the grunt work so administrators can make boatloads of money. The problem is not physician salaries, it’s the leeches that are the middle men of hospital admin and insurance companies.
And why do doctors earn so much more in America than in other countries?
Medical treatment seen as a public good for all vs If you can’t pay, sucks to be you.
I can’t speak for other countries much, but doctor have huge monthly payments to have malpractice insurance and student loans.
I think if you look it up you will be surprised how much malpractice insurance costs each month.
There was a TikTok trend where doctors are sharing how much student loan debt that have as well and it’s 6 figures in most cases.
I think these are all reasons that the salaries are so high.
Doctors deserve it.
The more interesting question to ask is why do doctors essentially everywhere else in the world not apparently deserve it?
Do the UK and France simply hate their doctors more? Are they not as good? Presumably not, and so what are the economic factors that led to this state of affairs?
Doctors in the US have a significantly different career path than those in other countries. They usually take two extra years to graduate, and their residency is more grueling. The latter requires working 100+ hour weeks for 4+ years at minimum wage.
All this means that they often won’t have a job paying above minimum wage until they are in their 30s - and that’s when they need to start paying back loans.
Most doctors are high achievers who could probably have found a $100K+ job out of college, but they chose medicine instead. High salaries are the light at the end of a long tunnel, and without them many Americans doctors would decide that medicine isn’t worth the sacrifice. In fact, specialties like pediatrics and family practice that “only” pay $150-200K are already struggling to attract new doctors.
america is the centre of the imperial core and has a privatized medical industry