Reforming the physician reimbursement system is a recurring theme here, as the perverse incentives of a fee-for-service system is a primary driver of health care costs.

Any talk about comparing US physician salaries with those abroad has to be accompanied by the context of the larger medical school debt and malpractice insurance that American physicians face.

So, would you accept lower physician salaries in exchange for a fully subsidized medical school education? Maggie Mahar speculates:

I suspect that many doctors would be happy with the trade-off. In terms of quality of life, many would consider being debt-free when they graduated in their early 30s more important than making 16 to 20 percent more when they were 57″”especially if they didn’t have to rush through their appointments in order to make their numbers. Again, doctors themselves are not happy to be laboring in a health care system where they are rewarded for doing more rather than for taking better care of their patients. Most physicians are as frustrated as their patients by the hurried appointments and lack of real communication between doctor and patient.

Read the rest of her excellent analysis of physician salaries.