Anecdotal account of doctor pay in Canada vs US

[Oregone]

Well, today I had a consultation with a private Canadian doctor for a little outpatient procedure I elected to have. All in all, it takes about 20 minutes to perform, and is rather standard. While talking, he did mention that I would have to pay out of pocket for the "kit" (local/materials). Everything else is covered by my medical insurance but I have to purchase a $50 dollar prescription from the pharmacy (this is more than I had to pay to have a baby in Canada!). But I laughed, and I mentioned that its no problem since the consultation alone would of cost a fortune in the US.

At the mention of the US, the doctor said he practiced in Seattle up until last year. This doctor made $1000 dollars for each one of these surgeries. In Canada, he only makes $80 dollars a surgery. My first reaction was to mention that its unfortunate that so many doctors head south because they can make so much (which leaves a shortage of specialists in Canada, and thereby, increase patient loads/wait-times). Of course, this doctor did the opposite.

Immediately, I wondered how there could be such a huge disparity between the two countries, and how "fair" it was for Canadian doctors to get paid so much less for the same surgery (and I am only basing this on a single surgery). On the other-hand, two of these surgeries an hour would net $160 bucks, which is a significant income (minus overhead). Is the problem really that American medicine (for this procedure) is so over-priced? Is it like this for all procedures?

Doctors here (in Victoria, BC) live in amazing neighborhoods (like Oak Bay), in nice homes, and have access to great schools with low crime. They live a very, very high standard of living. How much more do you really need in life? Seriously? Its almost incomprehensible that some job that could create an incredible standard of living would, if performed elsewhere, generate even 10X as much (which is unfathomable). Further...at what cost? That being, someone is paying for that, so all that wealth does come directly from the people serviced. Sometimes for each story in a skyscraper, it takes many more blocks to house the victims needed to concentrate such wealth...

Regardless....just baseless anecdotal musings here. I'm just surprised, thats all. And I definitely can see why health care costs so much in the US and why Canadian doctors would want to head south (two big problems in two different countries).

After the consultation, I signed up for a 2 month wait for the surgery (average wait time is 4.5 weeks for elective surgeries). I really wouldn't of expected to get it done any quicker any other normal circumstances. But in exchange, for a separate problem, I was just informed I had a CAT scan scheduled in two days from now! So, I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of Canada's single-payer health care system here.

[tsuki]

1. Thom Hartmann said once that he had a doctor move back to

Canada because the doctor said wanted to practice medicine.

If you factor out the huge malpractice insurance rates of the US and the extra employees for billing, what would the comparative costs to the consumer be? And because of the cost difference, how many more of these 20 minute procedures is he performing in Canada, which would bring the cost down.

If a doctor did one procedure a week for a $1000 and had to write a hefty portion of that to an insurance company plus pay an extra employee to bill, as opposed to a doctor who did ten a week for $800, which doctor is better off?

It is an interesting question. I wish we knew more about Canada Care.

[Oregone]

3. Yeah, there are a lot of factors to it really when you think about malpractice and billing

Not to mention, that this is an elective procedure with no medical need, whatsoever (there is nothing wrong with me--I intend to have less function after the procedure). Perhaps thats why the billing rate is so low.

On the otherhand, this specialist (urologist) does perform other medically necessary procedures. So while Im in awe of the disparity of a single procedure, perhaps the rest of his time the pay outs are more equitable. And perhaps, due to the lack of medical need, it may also contribute to the wait-time (whereas, I would hope, those in need of prostate cancer surgery are queued directly in front of me).

[morillon]

2. If I ever entered the medical profession...

...and that's not all that far-off an idea, since I am planning to change fields from Information Technology to something more directly helpful to mankind, I would only want to practice in a place like Canada.

[applegrove]

4. You should go for a walk in the parking lot of any canadian hospital. Those doctors sure do have

nice cars.