Comments on: Physician salaries: Would the French model work here?

By: TRick

TRick — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:58:00 +0000

The income for French physicians is often misstated to be $55K. That is well below the actual average.

General surgeons in the completely public sector (Secteur I) in 2006 received 77,681 euros per year. In Secteur II, where they take private patients, their average was 146,948 euros. They also can receive additional payments for "associated" work.

Generalists earned, on average, 64,000 euros. Today that is $92,800 at the prevailing exchange rate. (Ref Eco Sante IRDES web site)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:18:00 +0000

Absolutely!

Trust the government, they'll make it right. They always do.

I'm willing for you to take a pay cut as well. Not that either of us has a choice - it will happen over and over again until our bloated system fails completely; and not that it will benefit your fellow human beings.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:58:00 +0000

I agree, give me the French model any day of the week, I’ll stick in medicine. Honestly, maybe its because I’m in med school and not practicing yet, but the amount of concentration here on salaries is really shocking. When I think of all the patients I have seen in my days of just volunteering and now in clinic who had to fork over hundreds of dollars, forego care or were generally ignored by the staff b/c they knew they couldn’t pay…I am willing to take a pay cut if it means that more of my fellow human beings will have complete and fair access to healthcare. Anyways, I am sure that if universal care comes, and it will, the government will ensure that our loans, work hours and practice costs are controlled such that we don’t all run away.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 03:47:00 +0000

Sure, give me French pay. If you go by their published rates, it is not $55,000 per annum BTW, but more like E 200,000. But also, give me a French workweek, French legal protections, a French government-financed university education, French annual leave, a French pension and social-security retirement, and French food and culture.

I promise not to complain, or at least seulement en mode francaise. D’accord?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:39:00 +0000

“In some ways, our healthcare is more socialized than the Europeans and Brits.”

Wouldn’t it be revelation to Americans to find that they had fewer choices than Europeans due to government regulation! I know this would not be a revelation to Canadians.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:05:00 +0000

Which is to say, medicine is two-tiered in France, as it is everywhere in the world.

What I have believed is, don't avoid two-tiered medicine, just make sure the bottom tier is something you'd accept for your mother's care. 'cause ya never know....

It seems the French have done this.....now I say this as an outsider, so feel free to disagree if you've experienced this first-hand.

If my mother had arthritis and I wanted to see some famous rheumatologist.....in France, I may have to pay more. In the USA, I'm stuck in the Medicare fee schedule, and maybe the rheum is accepting new Medicare, maybe not.

Actually, not exactly true, in that large academic centers seem to find ways to exempt themselves from these rules under which we ordinary mortals have to line.

In some ways, our healthcare is more socialized than the Europeans and Brits.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 16:38:00 +0000

So there is a story to be told!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:10:00 +0000

After achieving a certain status, French physicians, about a third of the total, can charge what they want and the third party pays according to it’s schedule, with the physician collecting the difference depending on what the traffic will bear–the way medicare would work here if we were the free people that our forefathers were and wanted us to be. Those physicians of course earn more.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:49:00 +0000

Funny, in my own academic days, I would encounter European docs working in the USA, often to polish credentials for something prestigious back in their own country.

They often spoke of relatively low pay, for doctors on the low end of "le totem pole". If they rose high enough in "das pecking order", they somehow seemed to be able to charge whatever they wanted.

Oh, sure enough there it is in the article:

"Specialists who have spent at least four years practicing in a hospital are free to charge what they want, and some charge upwards of $675 for a single consultation. But American-style compensation is rare. "There is an unspoken and undefined limit to what you can charge," says Dr. Paul Benfredj, a gastroenterologist in Paris....."

I don't know many American docs who get $675 for a consultation.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:34:00 +0000

The link is Business Week.

That magazine frequently lists the starting salaries of the better law school and business school graduates.

Their starting salaries are a multiple of that fifty-five grand.

If fifty-five grand is the best you can expect in medicine, why bother?

Even if you wanted to stay in healthcare, right now you could easily make that sort of money with any kind of specialized credential and willingness to work the sort of shifts and "on-call" duties doctors are expected to work for free.

I know nurses who do two twelve-hour shifts a week, but able to cover ICU, ER, pediatric specialties, that sort of thing, and do better than that fifty-five grand.

A CRNA asked to cover an opthalmology or endoscopy suite would laugh at that salary.