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Comment by mcast | Hacker News Reader

Physicians in the US are also paid exceptionally more than their counterparts outside of the US. As an extreme example, Cuban doctors can make less than Cuban taxi drivers.

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And in Australia they dominate the list of highest paid professions, so I immediately wonder how many other wealthy countries were skipped before settling on Cuba as a comparison.

I know Australia has public and private healthcare systems, do physicians get paid the same in both markets?

More in private, but not the difference on an hourly basis is not necessarily that much.

I’ve had lawyer patients just giggle at the fact that I’m near the top of the income rankings in Australia. ‘Clearly doctors don’t hide their income very well!’

Patients pay less, and I get paid relatively more in Australia (less in absolute terms than the US). There are fewer middlemen clipping the ticket.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that in any discussion regarding the US and social policy Australia simply does not exist.

The only viable comparisons permitted are that Socialism == Communisim == Stalinism and that if not rampant capitalism then obviously Cuba or Venezuela.

Physicians' pay in the US has absolutely no meaningful impact on the cost of healthcare in general. Additionally doctors per capita in the US is nearly half what it is in a lot of European countries. Half the doctors doing the same amount of work effectively cuts their pay in half in terms of expense.

There's absolutely no way that's true. A day has only so many hours and person can work only so many hours in that day. I am a resident of EU. Every single doctor I know is severely overworked and there's a significant shortage of doctors. Other factors must be at play.

There is a strong push in the US for doctors to spend as little time as possible on each patient. I've had doctor visits that billed my insurance $350 where my doctor talked to me for literally 120 seconds. Everything else was done by an intake assistant. I would be surprised if it was this bad in other places, but explains why US doctors can handle more patients.

> Cuban doctors can make less than Cuban taxi drivers.

"make" here is such a capitalist term.

Can Cuban doctors fulfill their oath less?

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