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Comment by dante_dev | Hacker News Reader

Just throwing some data, average general practice doctor is 150k$ in US vs 61k$ in germany.

https://www.payscale.com/research/DE/Job=Physician_%2F_Docto...

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Physician_%2F_Docto...

I believe that doctors in the US get paid more than in germany, but 60k seems very very low. Teachers have an income in that range....

Edit: Looking at some german articles, maybe they did not convert from eur to usd, ~80,000-100,000$ (depending on expertise etc) seems more likely for a dr working at a hospital (which is still low imho compared to US salaries...).

https://www.arzt-wirtschaft.de/wie-hoch-ist-das-gehalt-bzw-d...

I think the difference in wages narrows down with specializations. I linked just the "general practitioner" because I couldn't find an average including all the specializations.

And furthermore you have to differentiate between "assistance" doctors (~82k $) and "chef" doctors (~336k $). (I don't know the comparable titles in the US system)

Both values are taken from the parent's article and converted using Google. Of course, mostly without serious student debt

You have to keep in mind that med school and the equivalent of premed in germany is completely free. Of course that does not make up for the pay difference completely but it changes the perspective quite a bit imo, since med school in the US is extremely expensive. Additionally I could totally see doctors being ok with less pay for the trade off of living in a more fair system. Coincidentally I know one expat here that specifically does not want to return to the US to become a doctor there for that very reason. She specifically does not want to move back because she feels the healthcare system in the US is unfair and she would be profiting off of that system.

That’s a terrible source, $150k is laughable for the US. Maybe for a part time doctor working 2 or 3 days a week.

This is more accurate:

https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2020-compensation-overvie...

I don't believe that salary income is the complete picture for physicians in the US. There are still a lot of doctors who are also "insider investors" in clinics, diagnostic equipment, and other medical businesses.

That's good, doctors should be paid more. 15 years for a license.

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