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by McDiesel 4296 days ago
It's not their salaries?

Watch them come to work, note the care they drive. Follow them home, note the house they live in. I've yet to see a dr in the US come to work in a civic, or live in a modest house...

2 comments

Right, the answer is somewhere in between.

When I worked on an ambulance, I'd be at the hospital several times a day - in the ER doctor lot, a sampling of the cars:

- multiple Tesla S's - 3 Porsche Cayenne - 2 Audi S5s - several Escalades

Whilst there are two sides to the story, let's not pretend that doctors live hopeless lives, saddled with a lifetime of crippling student loan debt, barely able to keep their heads above water to selflessly help people.

There is a medical group in Kansas/Indiana, I think, that was trialling the novel idea of "fixed price surgery"... looking at right on $100K for cardiac bypass.

Me? To look at my explanation of benefits, the billing for my kidney stone last year peaked at over $60K.

Did you see the age of those same doctors? Virtually guaranteed none of them were < 40.

A fair calculation of salary is some evaluation of (years of training required * intrinsic skill required * benefit to society). If you accept that, then doctors are surely near the top.

The salaries are high but the fact that a surgery costs $34,000, most of it doesn't go to the Doctor. I'm sure they get a lot, but the hospital needs its cut, the insurance need it's cut, etc.