The United States has the highest health care spending compared to
many developed nations of the World. A study conducted by the
Harvard school of public health found out that the main causes for
the higher health care spending in the U.S. are the high prices for
salaries of physicians and nurses, pharmaceuticals, medical devices,
and administration (Feldscher, 2018).
According to a survey conducted by Medscape in 2019, united states
physicians earn the highest salaries followed by German Physicians.
US Physicians make twice as much as German Physicians and 14
times more than Mexican Physicians who are paid the least. “The
highest annual salaries were $313,000 for US physicians; $163,000
for German physicians; and $138,000 for doctors in the United
Kingdom”. US physicians spend much more time and money in
training compared to Physicians from other countries. A Physician in
the United States must study 8 plus years to graduate (both
undergraduate and graduate programs) and then do a residency for
another 3 years and if they go for a specialty, it will require another 3
plus years. Other countries do not require this extensive training
with Mexico requiring the least, with 4 to 5 years plus 2 years of
internship /practical training. In many countries, public medical
education was either free or less compared to the U.S. (Frellick,
2019).
So, it explains why Physicians are paid more in the U.S because
medical education is expensive and requires several years of training
before a Physician can start earning.
In the case of other professions, an individual might earn a graduate
degree after 6 years of education and training and could start
earning. Government should provide less expensive medical
education in the United States in return for serving the underserved
population after graduation.
References
Feldscher, K. (2018). What is behind high U.S health care costs?
Retrieved from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/03/u-
s-pays-more-for-health-care-with-worse-population-health-
outcomes/
Frellick, M. (2019).US Physicians Highest-Paid Globally but Spend
Most for Training. Retrieved from
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/918652#vp_1
