Why are doctors paid so much?

As far as I can tell, they are technicians who follow established protocols based on their training and their biases.

Post Edited (reputo) : 4/18/2010 8:35:15 AM (GMT-6)

Postop has a good point. Wish more of our best and brightest kids would go to medical school and not to business school. Tells you where the real money is. We need more doctors and scientists.

Reputo) looks to me like you are fast tracked on the whole picture and got an early education. How much profit do you think is made on the Zoladex shot each time you get one (reputo). Did you ever read about the bribery lawsuits about zoladex and lupron being pushed by doctors(google it) as a cash cow bonanza for both of them. Cost around $800 million to handle the suits, which we are subsidizing that bad behavior in higher costs...what a country. Question everything at this point. There are some righteous docs whom actually care about patients before lining their pockets...trouble is finding them, but is possible. It took me a long while to find such and been 4 yrs.+(with needed onco-doc) no agendas, no real profits made off me(no drug profits or anything) and excellent information and actual care. I can see he has not cashed in on me and he even believes the drug companies are ripping off everybody and says so openly (duh).

Hey I see you were given Zoladex with those low stats and then got surgery, can you elaborate on this, not often done that way. Some might use casodex prior, they say it makes surgery much harder as gland becomes like a sticky mess while shrinking, per se.  Makes me wonder why your doc didn't have you do casodex or nothing prior to surgery..of course alot of ways are used to treat prostate cancer.

Dx-2002 (Mar)   bad stats, high risk patient big time, total urinary blockage too....amazingly still here and actually in decent shape at this juncture...even surprizes my posterior, seen others with much lesser stats gone in 3-5 yrs., of course I did things alot different than the norm and suggested routes of some of those 8 expert docs opinions that I got early on.

(to the naysayers...yeah I am not cured..my day will come..hold your applause)

I guess I'll assume the original poster is joking so I'll try to hold down the sarcasm.  Let's see, your doc pays $150K+ for an undergrad degree then another $200K+ for a medical degree that then allows him to pursue various residencies depending on his/her specialty.  Then he/she makes often makes life and death decisions, has a big influence on patients' QOL then has to deal with an out of control insurance and government bureacracy.  Meanwhile the tile guy has a HS education (maybe), has the awesome responsibility of deciding on how much grout to put down and sometimes takes his pay in cash making one wonder about whether or not the IRS gets their fair share.

Oh yeah, I guess it's logical to compare a physician with a tile guy....

Tudpock

reputo,

i too, am hoping your post was written in the spirit of a joke, not a serious statement.

and you are light years apart in comparing a skilled doctor to a tile layer, come on, no one will buy that.

if you want to pick on salaries, then think how dumb it is how much money professional sports players get paid, and entertainers and movie stars. Is some First Baseman play pro base ball really worth 5 million a day.

the risk and stress and life and death decisions that most doctors have make, i would hardly begrudge what they make after paying a fortune for their educations, their practices, and worse yet, their insurance policies.

there most be another reason why you are angry with doctor's salaries.

david in sc

Why are doctors paid so much? Lets see---four years of college, four years of medical school, internship, residency, practice.

My ob/gyn pays over $80,000 each year for malpractice insurance in New York State. After he pays his staff (administrative, nursing, midwife, sonogram technician), I don't imagine he gets to take home as much as one might think. If he practiced in Westchester County (rather than Putnam County), his malpractice insurance would be over $100,000 each year!

While I admire what a good tile guy can do with my bathroom floor, I wouldn't exactly equate his (or her) skills with that of a good doctor or surgeon.

It is easy to pick on certain profession's earning capacity.  I think most of us agree that pro baseball and basketball players, CEO's and movie stars get paid way too much.  Far more than they are worth.

Doctors are for the most part, not overpaid.  There are a few plastic surgeons and "surgery mill" wheeler dealers who probably make more than they are worth.  My urologist is the best in our area, but will not do more than 6 or 8 DaVinci surgerys per week (yes I said per week)  He is not like the five a day surgery mill wheeler dealers who I think compromise quality with their volume.  Even at 250 surgeries a year my surgeon probably makes enough to do well, but earns it and shares it fairly.  I think his bill is around $8000 per procedure, which must run a full medical office.

I looked up the U.S. average for a Urologist. The number was $180,000. A job's compensation generally has a number of factors that dictate pay scale. A few are education required, skill, number of people who can do the job, number of people willing to do the job, and so on. It takes quite a bit to become a doctor and several years before one begins to see a return on the cost of the medical training. Even in the best of circumstances I would bet you do not meet many doctors in there 20's. I am not sure I would  compare the skill of a tile layer to that of a surgeon. I can lay tile but I do not think many would want me operating on them.

I am an engineer just in case someone thinks I am a medical professional. Personally, I am grateful for the treatment I recieved and do not begrudge the doctor his fee. (Which he cut by the way due to my lack of insurance) The treatment costs are  based on the investment in equipment, personnel, facilities and liability insurance. Hospital costs are steep due to the high cost of the aforementioned items and the relatively few patients to spread the cost over. I live in a metro area of about 300,000 and there are two hospitals vying for the patients. Keep in mind that not all of the 300,000 are sick or under a doctors care. An interesting study was done (no I do not have the citation) that showed that medical costs actually went up when more than one facility offerred the same treatment. Say DaVinci or radiation. Reason is both facilities have to make back thier investment and they are sharing a finite pool of patients. In my case I spoke with four radiation facilites before deciding and they all had the same machine. Only one would give me an estimate of cost. The others just said "trust me". Like they did not know what the cost would be and Ouija board was down for the moment.

Well I will cease my ranting.

Best to all,

Don

 

goodlife said...
Billymac

You really don't think the doctor nets 15,000 per surgery ?

I am going on my surgery costs. Surgeon $12000-00, Assistant surgeon $500-00, anesthetist $1500-00. Total cost $14000-00. Add to this first day in hospital (including theatre fees, intensive care in recovery room) $5000-00, 2nd day hospital stay $2000-00. Total operation cost $21,000-00. As the hospital owns the robot lets assume the doctor pays a charge of $3000-$4000 for its use out of the fee he receives from me, that leaves him perhaps $8000-$9000 for his labour. Given doctors and hospital charges in the US are far higher than they are here (with US members quoting $30,000-$45,000) I would have thought that $15000-00 was not an unreasonable figure over there. Correct me if I am wrong.
Bill

Looking at all the ads on TV right now, I would say Lawyers makwe more money than they should. Dont let your children grow up to be Lawyers, then they become politicians. A Psychiatrist goes to school as long or longer than any MD. Pays those colloege tuitions and you will be in debt quite awhile. Besides I have more respect for most Dr.s than I do a lawyer. Sorry if I offend anyone.

Michael

The implication of the question is that doctors get rich doing what they do and that is not necessarily the case for as James C pointed out there is a big difference between the gross and net sums involved.

I think this thread could perhaps also be "Why are doctors in the US paid so much?" as well, for in the UK and Holland things are different which is obviously why the health care systems here are a little more acceptable to all. As an outsider I am indeed under the impression that docs in the US get paid more than their counterparts elsewhere

That said I want a guy holding the scalpel that knows what to do when the situation isn't straightforward too.
As with a plane I'd rather the pilot was paid more than the attendant, if the plane has a problem I want a good pilot, if the attendant runs out of nuts I couldn't care less. The ground engineers and air traffic controllers need to be paid more than the baggage handlers for similar reasons.

And Medical care costs a lot. The docs fee or salary is just one component.

(Biased opinion of course from me as there are lots of doctors and nurses in my family - but when my dad started he was earning about one third what my grandfather was earning as a bank manager - and he only started age 25 whereas my grandfather had started age 17. Bank head office paid for the building my GF worked in and his support staff too; my dad's charges though were what paid for the building he worked in and his staff. GF's travelling expenses paid by bank dad paid for his own.) Also biased opinion from me as I tiled my own kitchen and bathroom.

As for show bizz /sports salaries:
Guy from my school became a doc and played rugby for England unpaid in the 1970s.
The late Graham Chapman from Monty Python was a doctor, but I'd rather have paid him to make me laugh than to treat me. "Laughter is the best Medicine"

Alfred

reputo, are you participating here to provide social or other commentary, or as someone who has or had prostate cancer? So as to make a comparison, will you please provide us with the salary or approximate income your physician(s) make/earn yearly, and also tell us what you do or did for a living and what you earn or earned as a wage or salary? Thanks.

Well said John !