haha
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
What I see is that according to this data, Dutch and Australian specialists earn marginally more than US specialists and US specialists earn quite a lot more than all the rest. And as you said, US GPs are at the very top.If you follow the link I posted above there is a comparison in purchasing power parity, not per capita, for the reasons you stated. Interestingly GP's came out highest in the US but US specialists did not. My point was that throwing out a single number ($42K) is meaningless as it is an apples to oranges comparison. As I have an obviously biased opinion I'm not going to vigorously defend US physician pay - although I would note that in my specialty I could make the same or more in Canada. In Australia or NZ I would make about a third less.
DD
IMO this data without knowing specialist's efficiency is slightly to not at all helpful. Utilization is a very big factor. If an opthalmologists does 950 cataracts/year, his pay should not be compared to someone doing 150. A heavily hierarchical system that achieves efficient utilization could bring in more revenues to the practice, while at the same time costing the patients and 3rd party payors less. It's the concept of capacity utilization. When througput goes down, costs per unit go up, sometimes a lot.
It is obvious to me that the modern world has outgrown the model that our system (if it can be called that) is based on. Now that clearly does not mean that our system will change, it has successfully resisted change for a very long time and every year that goes by powerful interests are further entrenched.
I don't know if this kind of thing (utilization rates) is recorded cross-country; journalist tend to be satisfied with any story, not necessarily a meaningful one
Group Health, an HMO here in Seattle tends to have surgeons who become specialized in some procedure or small group of procedures-eg. arthroscopic shoulder surgery. And they do a whole lot of this set of operations. Well, you know this, as you live and practice in or near Seattle yourself I believe.
Clearly US doctors are very well paid compared to those from other countries. I do not know how much effect this has on US medical costs which is a more complicated question. But like I said before, I doubt it lowers them.
Ha