There is a reason why our country is facing a critical Obstetrician crisis. They can no longer afford the malpractice insurance so they are switching to Internal Medicine or Family Practice, where the insurance is still manageable.
I watched on CBS had interviews with the Doctors that moved back to India to find out why.
They said they went from earning 180k per year to earning only 40k per year. But the reason they did it was because 40k per year goes much further in India than 180k in the US.
I believe they cut from the interview or didn’t want to ask what happens to the 180k. First off, many of these doctors came from the North East or the West Coast. Places where the effective tax rate is 70% (this includes everything, including sales tax). So 180k equates to 54k take home in areas that are the most expensive to live in the country.
The second reason they identified, was the bureaucracy in hospitals. Often he said, decisions are made by a group of doctors instead of one doctor. In the US, doctors are so specialized that no one doctor makes a decision in major hospitals. Even if the procedure and condition is in your specialty other doctors have to weigh in.
This practice may be directly related to malpractice but currently isn’t reported as a cost that could be avoided if malpractice law was reformed.
The third reason, was he had hundreds of patients in the US. This left him no time to focus on any one. He often only looked at charts and test results with little face time with the patient, often the patient wasn’t even aware he existed.
And the final reason,
He wants his country to become the number 1 country for affordable quality medical care in the world. In other words, patriotic pride.