The average U.S. physician earns $350,000 a year. Top doctors pull in 10 times that.
When those simple data points were first presented in 2020, a small subset of physicians came unglued on the microblogging site formerly known as Twitter, slinging personal insults and at least one deeply unflattering photo illustration of an economist.
We couldn’t understand why. The figures are nigh-on unimpeachable. They come from a working paper, newly updated, that analyzes more than 10 million tax records from 965,000 physicians over 13 years. The talented economist-authors also went to extreme lengths to protect filers’ privacy, as is standard for this type of research.
By accounting for all streams of income, they revealed that doctors make more than anyone thought — and more than any other occupation we’ve measured. In the prime earning years of 40 to 55, the average physician made $405,000in 2017 — almost all of it (94 percent) from wages. Doctors in the top 10 percent averaged $1.3 million. And those in the top 1 percent averaged an astounding $4 million, though most of that (85 […]
The PCPs and even internists I know make nowhere near that- ( but the report says average so in theory half below and the big guys making a lot) What is not factored in is the time spent on EMR charting, getting prior authorizations,education competent staff \ and all the side things that go along with this including maintaining certification and lots of expensive CMEs- the top docs on the list have big staffs to do all that and scribes to do charts so they are making a lot but not as much as it seems – the neighborhood doc is still doing most of it him/herself so the article is misleading and doctors also spend years getting educated – the Bank, PBM, hedge fund and even basic CEOs make more than that and have BA degrees and maybe.an MBA, And look at the workweeks- Healthcare is now controlled by insurance companies and people who know nothing about medicine and care has become pitiful in most places. a 70 hr workweek does not leave much time for anything else. and finally there are fewer and fewer doctors- that is the question why not medicine???? please find some articles on why it is only the foreign born who do not have to pay 200,000 for college at the minimum to get an entry to medical school are now the American doctors
Healthcare in the United States as it is currently structured is not sustainable. The energy inputs, on multiple levels both human and infrastructure, are too high and cannot be maintained. As this progresses we will continue to see portions of the system breaking down. This will manifest itself both the labor disputes ( as in NJ at present ), and in outcomes ( not being able to access appropriate care). The long long term solution to this is to eliminate the profit motive from the provision of care.
It should also be noted that in Cuba, the cost of a Doctorate degree is nothing compared to the USA. Cuba produces more doctors than any other south American country and exports them to other countries, because of their low cost schooling.