Does health care lower doctors wages?

Question

Does health care lower doctors wages?
I am very interested in career in medical i just wanna know can universal health care or everyone having health care lower doctors nurses etc wages. I am interested because i need to know if i would be able to pay off loans if i do go in this field

Answer 1

I used to live in Florida. My neighborhood was about half Doctors and Dentists and half of those were Canadians who had left Canada because Doctors and Dentists don't get paid as much in Canada because of their Universal Health Care or Socialized Medicine they have there.

Fortunately, we don't yet have that there but the current congress is working on it. We may yet get Universal Health Care, in which case, doctors wages will go down significantly from what they are now.

Answer 2

If a doctor is self employed, then insurance payments, etc. would be included in all income (and investments). So if the doctor has decided to pay him/herself $100,000 year, then that's what they would get paid. They'll have other expenses also, i.e., equipment, other staff...

If the doctor works for a partnership or company, then s/he will have a contract to earn a certain salary, again, could be $100,000.

If the doctor works for the government, s/he would still have a certain salary.

So don't believe that doctors don't generate an income when they don't get the payment per patient that they'd like to. Income may be lowered on one end, however, they have the option of lowering expenses like the rest of us self-employed people.

Some over the years have discontinued taking new Medicare patients because they can generate more income by having clients who they can direct-bill. And leave it up to the client to get their own reimbursement from the health insurer (if they have one).

Sad, but true. I think we still call it the free market system. My friend is a medical doctor and works for a Fortune 500 company. After 13 years she still is repaying student loans. The interest rate is so low that it makes it more useful to pay this loan last and to pay off the higher interest bills first.

Answer 3

If you make a formula of cost of school Vs. expected pay, then becoming a doctor is a real loosing proposition unless you are brilliant enough to be able to specialize. I also, frankly, know of only a few doctors who are glad that they are doctors. Most wish that they had become advanced nurses. There was a time when doctors made a lot of money and had a lot of prestige. That is well faded now. I should ad: I am an NP. At the clinic where I work, I do almost the same things as the doctors. The doc's have the honor of being called "doctor", they get paid about 12 grand a year more than me, but they have SO much more responsibility. Plus I am in the nurse's union, and I get overtime pay, where as a doc does not. My sister and dad are both doctors, and my dad retired at age 55, and my sister hates her work, and looks 10 years older than she is. Talk to lots of people and choose carefully.

Answer 4

MissV is absolutely right...and exactly to the point. I am a Physician Assistant. I have a Master's in Medicine and a PA certificate and license. Alot of people who are interested in healthcare and medicine have opted to go the way I did. I practice with a physician because I have to be under a physician's license, however I work largely on my own and independent. Of course, a position such as mine can be different according to the doctor you work under. The point is if you are interested in medicine, my years of education is a four year BS degree. Then 2 and a half years (all year round with a week off for Christmas....and LONG days of work and study the whole time....like four years of med school squished into 2 and a half)for a PA certificate and Master's degree. And I make approx $82,000. per year...and I have 14 months experience. The physician I work under pays my malpractice insurance, as part of my benefits package. I have only student loans to pay off. The office expense that a doctor has to pay...I don't have to. Sooooo, I would recommend it as a good career path. But like I said, how good it is depends on the physician you are under. But the field is wide open. We have been advertising for another PA or a NP the whole time I've worked there and have next to no nibbles. The two who interviewed turned the position down because of how busy we are and received better offers. For the amount of education and the pay rate....its a good deal.

Answer 5

Universal Health Care, also known as government health care, has seriously lowered doctors wages in every country that implements it.