[euglena]

It's difficult competing against the USA...

Med Broadcast

Government defends 56 per cent jump in doctors earning over $476,000 a year

Oct. 04, 2006


Provided by: Canadian Press
Written by: KEITH LESLIE

TORONTO (CP) - The Ontario government allowed the number of doctors earning more than $476,000 annually to jump 56 per cent last year - some averaging salaries upwards of $718,000 - in order to ease the pressure of a shortage of physicians, Health Minister George Smitherman said Wednesday.

The salary cap was lifted because 1.2 million Ontario residents don't have a doctor, and the province wanted to encourage existing doctors to see more patients, Smitherman said.

Some 1,450 doctors in Ontario earned more than last year's cap of $466,000, while salaries in specific areas targeted with extra funding to reduce wait times soared even higher, Health Ministry statistics show. Nearly 1,000 Ontario doctors pulled in over $627,000 last year.

"I rather suspect that if we're creating millionaire doctors, it's because they've seen a heck of a lot of patients," Smitherman said before a provincial cabinet meeting.

"There are too few doctors, and of course we want to get as much productivity as we can out of those that we have, and financial incentive is the very best way known to do that."

Figures for top physician earners show 224 family doctors in Ontario earned an average of $627,000 last year, while 374 diagnostic radiologists averaged $652,000.

The top earners overall were ophthalmologists, 191 of whom averaged over $718,000 in earnings, followed by cardiologists, who averaged $687,000 last year.

Smitherman said the statistics indicate an 11 per cent increase in doctor productivity since the salary cap was lifted.

Premier Dalton McGuinty also defended the increases.

"We had heard time and time again that the (salary) cap was suppressing the numbers of services, surgeries, procedures that we could provide," he said.

"That's one of the reasons we've been able to enjoy the successes we have in getting wait times down."

McGuinty also said Wednesday that he knows the province will have to give even more money to emergency room doctors - who already average $170 an hour - because of severe staffing problems, especially in the Kitchener area, 100 kilometres west of Toronto.

"We have a real issue when it comes to pay packages for emergency room doctors, and we're taking a look at that," he told the legislature.

The province allowed a Cambridge hospital to hire a private company last week to run its emergency room, while a hospital in nearby Kitchener came very close to closing its emergency room doors because of a shortage of doctors.

[Zagadka]

It's actually a world issue. Young students from countries around the world, from every background, flock to the US (and to a lesser extent, UK/EU) either with a degree or to get a degree to become doctors, and once they do, they never leave... hard to blame them (though I do). Coming from slums in India to make hundreds of thousands of dollars isn't much of a choice, and most of that money doesn't get sent back home (unless it is to bring the rest of the family over too).

Of my 5 doctors, 2 are first generation Indian, 1 is first generation Pakistani, 1 is first generation Azerbaijani, and 1 black (Ixa would be paralyzed with fear!). At my physician's office, there are 6 first-generation immigrant doctors and 2 "plain American".

As such, many countries have a health crisis, even, as this thread so elegantly points out, developed first-world nations like Canada.

There's a twist on the problem with commercial clerical/phone work and computer programming; people from India, China, South Korea, Japan, etc get educations or training and work in their home countries doing the jobs of Americans. This is of very direct concern to me.

[Boondock Saint]

It's difficult competing against the USA...

I can imagine it would put the Candadian govt in a bad spot. How to keep health care costs down whilst providing the best possible health care across the board AND enticing doctors to stay can't be easy when just south of Canada is a nation that allows doctors to come and make whatever they can possibly make.

The toughest bit is when a doctor decides to go into plastic surgery, now there is a wasted education and skill eh?

I don't envy the Canadian govt in this situation.

Perhaps cutting down on certain procedures?

On top of that, what are the tax rates for people who make $600k/year?

Is the govt taking %50 of that like here in the US? Or are they taking even more?

[SpiderMonkey]

Fortunately for Canada, the republicans may come to their rescue. By creating an environment hostile to science (like trying to force NASA employees to fake results for political purposes) education (having fuckwits like David Horowitz sending his red guards to campuses) and medicine (abortion clinics, terri shiavo) the flow of intellectual capital into the US is probably going to slow down considerably in the next few years, it might even reverse.

Theres only so much of an incentive a huge paycheck can offer in a country that is starting to treat learning like its fucking witchcraft.

[Boondock Saint]

Spidey ...

I doubt it.

Money talks louder then most things, that's just the way it works. Besides, the Bush regime can only be in power for so long. This means their backwards approach to certain things can only last so long and, tbh, they are only trying to change certain things ... they are not being all that succesful.

At the end of the day, a Doctor in the US can still work with much less govt interference in his/her bank account.

[Zagadka]

At the end of the day, a Doctor in the US can still work with much less govt interference in his/her bank account.

Meh, there needs to be a much simpler tax code in America, there are way too many loopholes and crap in there.

But yes, I agree, American doctors bring in more than their fellows, which is why, as I mentioned above, doctors are flocking to America.

The Bush Admin shit isn't going to interfere with anything - but I'd wager dollars to donuts that more and more scientific exploration and discovery is going to be coming out of Europe, and later Asia, in the future. With globalization, the Internet, etc etc, availability of knowledge and education are at all time highs, and it is much simpler for smaller labs in multiple locations (even countries) to partner up and compete with monolithic American giants... Europe is already competing with medicines, and is gaining momentum for space exploration. China is on the verge of reaching for the stars. In the future, NASA won't have as large a role in global science as it has in the past. We may still make it back to Luna or Mars first, but we aren't alone out there anymore.

[euglena]

But yes, I agree, American doctors bring in more than their fellows, which is why, as I mentioned above, doctors are flocking to America.

I bet their malpractice insurance skims off a nice 25-30% of their salary though...