The issue is not whether doctors’ salaries should be high but why it is high. This discussion was primarily about whether the market should determine the salaries or whether the number of doctors produced should have been commensurate with the population. Either of these approaches would have been fair. What’s not fair is the controls that have been in place to keep the salaries high.

It’s true that the AMA suffers decline in its membership. It is true that the AMA has reversed its position on the number of primary care doctors recently. However, these are fairly recent transformations and will take years for the effects of these changes to propagate.

To deny the influence that the AMA has had in our politics is ignoring the facts, although I am glad that their influence has decreased. I would be equally glad when the influence that the pharma and insurance industry lobbies decrease as well.

Nevertheless, the problems in our healthcare industry are so huge that doctors salaries won’t make much of a dent. There are much bigger fish out there.

Ravi.

Also, just opening up more schools isn’t the answer. If you want to see someone less qualified, go see a nurse practitioner. They are very abundant (for good reason, it’s just a 4 year nursing degree followed by 1-2 years of graduate classes). Do you know what it takes to get into the off-shore schools? Basically you have to have a pulse and some cash. Plus we have new D.O. schools opening up, so don’t forget that, that makes the count more like 160 medical schools. Yes, D.O.’s are pretty much identical to M.D.’s, albeit with the OMM garbage thrown in.

1. Remove restrictions on numbers of doctors and instead, specify and enforce standards (to some degree this is already in place). I understand the argument that you don’t want anyone and everyone to become a doctor, but there are enough smart people who can and are willing. And, you test them. Universities would be willing to increase number of medical admissions, because there is money to be made there (look at the MBA offerings). More people will get into the program because of the rewards.

2. Come up with a way for patients to bargain down prices. This is one of screwed up systems in which as a buyer (patient), I want to pay the maximum (the insurance pays for it after all), because I can get the best doctor/treatment. Or, at least, increase insurance industry competition so that they can bring in lower cost doctors (you need enough of them however).

3. Just squeeze down the payment rates (needs government intervention) – the salaries are still high enough that people are not going to run away to other professions.

4. Reduce the debt burden that the doctors complain about by looking at the training that is actually required for doctors. Many other countries are able to produce doctors cheaper. They do ok. One can argue that our doctors are better than docs from elsewhere. But, is that commensurate with the amount of money that’s spent? Do they actually require as many years in school, regardless of the specialty?

I am sure there are holes in these approaches and there are other better approaches. But, broadly we have to rely on either the free market or mandated cost controls to lower the salaries. Right now, there are no cost controls and no free market since the supply is artificially controlled.

Regardless, the wastage and amount of money in our healthcare system is so much that no one even cares about the doctors’ salaries. Rightly so. And that’s how this issue is swept under the rug, I believe.

medicine is competitive for a reason, do you really want your pediatric heart surgeon to be that dumb kid in glass who used to eat glue?

Docs will gladly leave this country for Australia, France or wherever for a bit of a pay cut. And people with half a brain won’t be entering medicine for 300k in debt and no way of paying it off as well as education till they are 30 and long ass hours.

Your health is the most important thing to you, why wouldn’t you want to take the best care of it that you can?

physician salaries are a small factor in the cost of healthcare so this whole thing is pointless, drug prices, expensive medical technology, more imaging, etc is why your healthcare is so expensive. Also we live in an expensive ass country, what do you expect! Higher physicians salaries, compared to what ever country that you can’t even use as a comparison because of demographic differences, are here to make up for expensive and long education that docs must fund as well as high malpractice insurance because

These docs in other countrys work half the hours and half the pace. And don’t have the problems of our county, immigrants and income disparity. You aren’t just paying for your own healthcare but the ED visit of the homeless guy outside! What you think the government actually makes money and pays for that guy? Everyone needs to get paid

close this horrible and ignorant article

And as an aside this is an article on lowering physician salaries in the US and you are really just arguing for increasing international physician salaries.

The number is residents is controlled by the congress based on the amount of money they allocate towards residents’ payments. Unfortunately, it is the organizations like the AMA that lobby for limiting the funds – that’s why I was careful to say they “indirectly” control the number of doctors.

Anyone who is against any union, has to wonder why and how this union was so powerful all these years …..