I meant if you paid them here on the scale of what Filippino doctors earn in their country, they'd be mowing lawns on the side (or they wouldn't have gone into medicine in the first place). Check out their overhead costs, their malpractice insurance costs, not to mention their student loans. Your average GP here isn't rolling in dough. Some of the specialists perhaps, but the doctors I know live in the same quarters on base as others of their rank. A doctor lives on our street, a geriatric specialist. We share the street with a gardener, a lawyer, a flight attendant, a caterer, and a cop (among many others - i.e., it's hardly beachfront property, very middle class). Most homes are in the 1800- 2000 sq. ft. range on 5000 sq ft lots.
So is the doc on our street living high on the hog? How far down in the ghetto do you want him to live?
I'm not asking anyone to live in the ghetto.
I am simply saying that I'd rather not pay $100,000 for an operation, and wondering why on earth I should be asked to.
It actually irks me that, despite these outrageous fees, nobody appears to be getting rich off them. Doctors probably got very little of the outrageous fees I paid, nurses don't make that much, and hospitals are going bust. So where is the money going? Who IS getting rich off of these fees?
If the money all goes to lawyers and insurance companies, I'd rather have my care done in another country, where a higher percentage goes to those who actually do the work. In extremis, I could buy my own equipment and set up my own hospital for less than what it takes to do one operation here!
That was my point.
Does that make more sense?
D