Posted on 09/08/2011 6:00:05 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Doctors are paid higher fees in the United States than in several other countries, and this is a major factor in the nation’s higher overall cost of health care, says a new study by two Columbia University professors, one of whom is now a top health official in the Obama administration.
“American primary care and orthopedic physicians are paid more for each service than are their counterparts in Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom,” said the study, by Sherry A. Glied, an assistant secretary of health and human services, and Miriam J. Laugesen, an assistant professor of health policy at Columbia.
The study, being published Thursday in the journal Health Affairs, found that the incomes of primary care doctors and orthopedic surgeons were substantially higher in the United States than in other countries. Moreover, it said, the difference results mainly from higher fees, not from higher costs of the doctors’ medical practice, a larger number or volume of services or higher medical school tuition.
Such higher fees are driving the higher spending on doctors’ services, the study concluded.
Ms. Glied, an economist, was a Columbia professor before President Obama named her assistant health secretary for planning and evaluation in June 2010. She said the paper, based on academic research, did not reflect the official views of the administration or the White House.
But the journal said the findings suggested that, as policymakers struggle to find ways to restrain health spending, they might consider doctors’ fees. Doctors have generally been excluded from recent cost-cutting proposals because under existing law, Medicare, the federal insurance program for older people, will reduce their fees by 29.5 percent on Jan. 1. In addition, many states have frozen or reduced fees paid to doctors treating poor people under Medicaid.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Hey you stupid doctors who voted for and support der Fuehrer. You’ve been tagged by democrats as the cause of all their supposed woes with our health care system. Hope you all like the idea of being government employees, being told what to practice and when and where you will practice and how you will practice medicine. Morons.
American bureaucrats and college professors are more highly paid in the U.S. than their counterparts overseas, too. Pay cuts for these people need to be on the table!
Notice they don’t factor in the cost of Malpractice ins.
Are the Taxpayers going to pick up the premiums for this ins. If not Docs will just stop accepting new patients.
The authors had better be careful what they wish for. As doctors fees go down, older physicians will have a greater incentive to leave the profession. The physician population is already old; 40% of physicians are obver 55 years old. Numerous surveys have indicated that many physicians will leave the profession if 0bamacare is implementated. Because it takes 4 years of med school and 4-8 years of residency to train a physician (depending on speciality), medical schools will not be able to make up the shorfall any time soon. Meanwhile some 30 millions uninsured are expected to be newly covered under obamacare. It doesn’t take a genius to see that access and quality will be drastically reduced.
Let’s see..who exactly is telling us ALL ABOUT the evils of medicine in the USA? Professors of nothing worth knowing. Politicians. Bureaucrats seeking to justify their salaries. Armies of lawyers defending their “Awards”. Union Officials. Truck drivers. And millions of people not qualified to put a band-aid on a boo-boo.
Have any ACTUAL DOCTORS, those with REAL, LIVE patients posted their opinions.
When I have a medical issue, I want to see a doctor, not some know-nothing who can accomplish nothing.
If your scenario is correct, and I think it is, look for the regime to panic and begin “crash training” doctors just as they did in the USSR.
“Oh, you washed out of teacher college? OK, you’re a doctor now!”
Maybe you should have read the rest of the article — Last I knew none of these countries had banana shacks or alley health care - although we do have some of that here, specially if you are poor..
On average, primary care physicians in the United States received $186,582 in pretax income a year, compared with $95,585 in France and $92,844 in Australia. When it came to orthopedic surgeons, there was a similar disparity, with US surgeons taking in an average of $442,450 a year, compared with $154,380 in France, $208,634 in Canada and $324,138 in the UK.
So what do they earn after taxes, and more importantly, after having paid their enormous malpractice insurance fees to protect against greedy trial lawyers and their scamming clients?
They lost me at “a survey conducted by two Columbia professors”. Nuff said.
Same thing National Socialists always do - load 'em in boxcars and send them to "camp".
So what? They've earned it, IMHO. Our healthcare system has issues, no doubt, but it's the very best in the world.
We also need to consider loosening the stranglehold the AMA has on the production of new doctors, and the regulations on who is allowed to practice medicine.
For example, a lot of medical work could be handled by Nurse Practitioners.
If you think your doctor is a moron you should look for a new one.
This article if filled with misinformation. A real moron is someone who believes everything they read in the New York Times.
Insurance, Medicare and Medicaid have been limiting reimbursement for physicians. They may send a bill for $100 but sometimes only get reimbursed $17. or less from the government or insurance company. Add to the mix the millions of illegals and the underclass who pay nothing for their health care. Our high health care costs are subsidizing them.
That's already the case, along with Physician Assistants.
Note to the NYT's, everyone in the United States gets paid more then other countries! Of course this hurts women and children the most.....................asshxxxx
Don’t blame the doctors, only a small fraction of their fee is for salaries and normal overhead. Thebulk of the cash goes to insurance companies and lawyers. I personally know of at least 3 doctors and 1 dentist who no longer practice because of insurance premiums.
I wonder how malpractice insurance premiums compare, and what the courts in the foreign countries listed allow for limits on malpractice claims. This would seem to be a key part of the “net cost/net income” determination.
Totally asinine, like all liberal tripe. Lawyers get paid a lot more in the US than in most other countries, but I don’t hear liberals jumping on that bandwagon.
Average physician reimbursement rates for a simple new patient visit are around $40 - $50 dollars. For advanced comprehensive new patient visits these numbers vary between $130 - $165. For return visits these numbers are $24-$35, and $100 - $125 respectively.
These numbers can vary a bit, dependent upon who the payer is, but these are the basic ranges. If you think running an office, with staff / nurse etc., paying malpractice, etc. is easy with these numbers, you haven’t thought enough about it. There’s no way, in my opinion, that you can do a good job with patients if you push them through with very short visits. It’s not fair to them, and it definitely doesn’t make you feel good as a doc. Thus, trying to make a profit by running a ridiculously high volume practice is not the answer.
As a doc, I don’t ever think of myself as better or brighter than other people in society, but I do believe that I made some pretty big commitments with my time and personal life over many years - including quite a bit of my youth - to become capable of doing a good job with patients. I’m very tired of being characterized as some sort of villain.
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