Piano Answers

Before you answer this question, do consider that our doctors are here to save our lives, & without individuals of such talent, we would be much worse off than we currently are. Not everyone has the ability to do what doctors can do. I have been affected by what multiple doctors have done. Had a neurosurgeon & a cardiovascular surgeon not been there my piano teacher (78) would have died.
This issue I think is a very serious problem in this country. Consider the two situations below:
1. A physician on average makes $175,000 per year. Income taxes are about $45,000. Malpractice insurance is about $30,000. This leaves the physician with only $100,000 left (57% of his/her initial income)
2. A cardiovascular surgeon on average makes $500,000 per year. Income taxes are about $200,000 per year. Malpractice insurance is about $100,000. This leaves the surgeon with only $200,000 left (40% of his/her initial income).
Remember that all doctors have to go through 4 years of medical school (med school tuition is around $50,000 per year) & many have to go through residency (4 years of 120-hour weeks on minimum wage). Also consider that many doctors are on call 24/7, so if you take their salary & divide it by 24/7, their hourly pay is not much higher than a McDonald’s employee
It gets worse, too. With the current health care crisis & insurance monopoly, doctors’ salaries are decreasing, & malpractice insurance is increasing, & income taxes are increasing. The average doctor has seen his/her income drop by 50% in the past 10 years. This means by 2020, the physician will be down to $50-60,000, & the heart surgeon will be down to $110-120,000.
Some people try to justify malpractice insurance. The reason it is so high is not because doctors are making more mistakes. It is because insurance companies are trying to take advantage of doctors since they are already making enough to afford to lose another several thousand dollars. People also talk about how doctors in other countries don’t make as much as doctors in the US, but doctors in other countries don’t have to go through the decade of education after college American doctors have to go through. Healthcare in other countries is also much worse than in the US. Had my grandfather been treated by American doctors, he might still be alive today. Instead, he was poisoned by clearly incompetent doctors in China. No wonder foreign doctors don’t make that much.
Do you think this is fair that doctors in the US are being stripped of their incomes & losing their respect by the people? They work so hard to do good for society, & yet they are treated below average. Why do people resent them so much?

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