Why do doctors get paid less than athletes?

Answer 1

Doctors attend college and medical school for eight to ten years after high school. The average cost of a year of college is about $10,000, and medical school is about $25,000 per year. That's about $140,000 just to become a doctor, plus the normal expenses of living for 8 years. Most doctors finish school with loan debts approaching $100,000.

Then there is a year of internship and two years of residency, during which they make very little (and work their a**es off). If she wants to specialize in a particular area, such as gynecology, pediatrics, or surgery, there is more training, more time, and more expense.

After that, if they wish to go into private practice, they have to equip and staff an office. That means rent, electric, equipment (expensive), licensing, salaries for staff, and -- the big one -- insurance that can run as much as $50,000 per year all by itself.

So now, after 20 years of school, including a minimum of 8 years of expensive college, and all that additional training, the doctor is about 30-35 years old and can start earning a living, paying back all those loans, and paying for the everyday expenses of running a practice.

Does that bring the cost of going to the doctor a bit more into perspective? How much training, expense and effort went into learning the job that you do?

Some additional comments:

1. My medical school loans are in excess of $200,000!

2. Doctors bear a tremendous responsibility to make extraordinarily complex decisions on a daily basis. The consequences of making an incorrect decision could mean that a person dies. This is not an exaggeration by any means. We deal with life and death every single day.

3. We cannot just coast through a work day if we are tired or stressed out, like many other people on earth. We must be on our toes, doing high quality work at all times. No room for mistakes.

4. Our rigorous training and education does not end when we finish residency! We are required to continue our education as the science of medicine evolves. In order to stay current and maintain licensure, we must take on hours and hours of continuing education courses. This takes not only more of our time outside of practice hours, but the cost of these continuing education credits, license renewals, board recertification exams, DEA licensure, etc. can be extremely high.

5. In my opinion, doctors, nurses, and teachers should be paid A LOT more than what they are making now! It is an abomination to me that the Hollywood stars and the sports stars are making millions and millions of dollars when doctors, nurses, and teachers are struggling. Again, as healthcare providers, we are dealing with life and death!!! I bet if I studied the lines I could do Jennifer Aniston's job (though admittedly, she is much prettier than I!) reasonably well with no training. Could she do mine? She makes more in one DAY of filming than I make in a year. That's just so wrong!

From a non-doctor's perspective:

The work of doctors is important, but the reality is that many are overpaid. They may say that they are saving lives, but the physicists that created the imaging equipment or the chemists that created the drugs are definitely making far less than medical doctors, and this is far more difficult than practicing medicine. Through lobbying by the AMA and the specialist professional associations, the number of slots in medical school and in some residencies is artificially limited, so that there are never enough doctors to treat all the people who need treatment. Specialists have been more successful in this than primary care doctors. Thus, demand exceeds supply, and increasing salaries have little impact on the supply. This sets the stage for astronomical price increases. The same is true of some allied health fields, in which the salary is far higher than the level of education, skill, and work would lead to in a field other than healthcare.

Answer 2

For the amount of hours they have to work and the amount of brain power they have, i would say way underpaid. Maybe some of the actors/actressess could donate a couple million of their hundreds of millions of dollars for making movies. Its not the way it should be, the people who work the least out of any other job in this country get paid the most by a long shot. They could also give a couple dollars to the starving children in the world, and to the children with life threatening illnesses whose parents do not make enough money to pay for treatment and medication to help them get better or even maybe cure them. Where are all those Hollywood stars money going to. UnimportantThings. If there were no or doctors we would all be in very poor health or even dead. And we probably would not live past 35-40. Without doctors we would be in alot of trouble. So I think Doctors and Nurses deserve more than what they are paid.

Answer 3

Doctors, as with other professions, are paid the going rate of the region they are from. Some people may think this payscale is too low others may think it is too high. If a doctor is not satisfied with his or her salary then they are free to attempt to find a job with a salary with which they will be happy.

Answer 4

Athletes have sponsers that pay their wages Doctors do not.

Answer 5

because if we did then we would'nt have enough money for food and other things!:(

Answer 6

There is no reason he should not get paid more. In fact, he should get paid more than nurses! Doctors go to school longer (thus racking up more student loans) and have to do actual surgery.