Comment on The average doctor in the U.S. makes $350,000 a year. Why?
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
The barriers to entry are high: 4 years of undergraduate education, 4 years in med school, 3 to 7 years of residency. Those years are very expensive, with the average med school graduate student piling up $250k of student loans. And if you’ve ever watched a friend go through med school and residency you’ll know it’s life-consuming; they are immersed in work and miss out on years of socializing and culture. The payoff at the end had better be commensurate or nobody will be a doctor.
FinalBoy1975@lemmy.world 1 year ago
You can become a doctor of anything useless to society. It’s expensive to become a doctor of medicine in the USA. The system is broken. Where I live, these practitioners make much less and their education was paid for by the state. Their salaries are much lower.
Encode1307@lemm.ee 1 year ago
The state is you. You’re paying for their education either way, either through exorbitant salary or higher tax burden.
FinalBoy1975@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yes, but their salary is lower because they have no loans to repay and they don’t bill insurance companies. You see, there are three things missing here that exist in the United States that artificially make the salary higher: 1) universal corporate health care 2) student loans 3) university tuition and fees. My taxes pay for the doctors’ education. When they graduate and get a job, my taxes pay their salary. My taxes also pay for all things related to health care. The result? It’s all cheaper, including doctors’ salaries. I don’t have to pay a dime if I go to the doctor when I have a health problem. It isn’t magic. It makes sense. Remove private corporations from the scene and the cost is lower. Also, make higher education available to everyone who is intellectually capable and the cost is lower. Oh yeah, where I live, you can’t become a doctor just because your mom and dad have lots of money. You have to take a state-approved exam when you graduate from high school. If you score high enough you can study to become a doctor. There’s a cut-off score. And this is why doctors travel from this country to the USA to work. They take advantage of the ridiculously high salary and have no student loan debt to pay back.
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
You do pay to go to the doctor; you simply pay in advance through taxes. Their salaries are lower partly because you paid for their education. And depending on your country your taxes may also be paying for their office space, their equipment, their retirement pensions, etc. In the end you pay for everything, whether directly or indirectly.