Physicians in France make about $55,000 per year. Can that be realistically applied here?
France reimburses its doctors at a far lower rate than U.S. physicians would accept. However, French doctors don’t have to pay back their crushing student loans because medical school is paid for by the state, and malpractice insurance premiums are a tiny fraction of the $55,000 a year and up that many U.S. doctors pay. That $55,000 equals the average yearly net income for French doctors, a third of what their American counterparts earn. Then again, the French government pays two-thirds of the social security tax for most French physicians””a tax that’s typically 40% of income . . .. . . Many French doctors, in fact, earn more by increasing their patient load, or by prescribing more diagnostic tests and procedures””a technique, also popular in the U.S., that inflates health-care costs.
