A study published this week in the journal Health Affairs found the incomes of primary care doctors and orthopedic surgeons were higher in the U.S. than counties such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK!
American primary care docs raked in a pretaxed average of $186,582 in 2008 compared to Australia and France docs making an average of $92,844 and $95,585.
The paper asserts this is a major factor in the nation’s higher overall cost of health care, explaining:
“U.S. primary care physicians earn about one-third more than do their counterparts elsewhere,” mainly “because a much larger share of their incomes is derived from private insurance.”
Researchers also noted that the income gap between primary care doctors and orthopedic surgeons was larger here than elsewhere.
Orthopedic surgeons are earning an average of $442,450, while the closest comparable figure was in Britain with an average of $324,138. Pretax earnings in other countries were less than $210,000.
Primary care doctors want to close the gap too! The American Academy of Family Physicians is pressing the agency that oversees Medicare to “change a payment system they say places a higher value on work done by specialists.”
We’re assuming that means they want more money too! Ha!
The question to some may be whether or not primary and orthopedic doctors are worth their ginormous salary!
[Image via AP Images.]