<p>i think i'm 100% convinced that most, but definitely not all, hopeful pre-meds and med students want to become doctors for the essentially guaranteed 6 figure salary. do you guys, specifically bdm, brm, and the others, believe that this statement is accurate based on your med school classmates?</p>
<p>in today's rapidly globalizing economy, is this decision wise? there's no guarantee that america's economy will be as dominant as it once was, so where does that leave the future of medicine? how will physician compensation change in the near future? will medicine continue to be the financially safe occupation that it is perceived to be?</p>
<p>i guess there's also the issue of being in your early to mid-thirties when you start to make money as a physician. plus debt, rising costs of living, etc. any thoughts?</p>
<p>I'd say that for most of my classmates and myself, the financial safety of medicine is part of the lure of the field. However, for the overwhelming majority (95%+), there are a great many other factors that matter much more than that. For me personally, it's really more of icing on the cake than anything else - I've wanted to be a doctor since I was three years old. I can honestly say, that for those people I know their career plans, no one is choosing a specialty based on expected income. No budding dermatologists or plastic surgeons in my group. The people I know doing anesthesia definitely have good reasons for doing it (or at least have done a good job practicing their speech about why they want to go into anesthesia). </p>
<p>Even if physicians aren't making six figures, in the overall scheme of things, a job that pays more than 80k is still significant. No physician is going to have trouble paying the electric bill if you know what I'm getting at. </p>
<p>Yes, the debt is is an issue. There have been a number of articles written about students, particularly at private schools, refusing to enter primary care fields because of their debt load. I actually think that this area is going to be where we see the most action from the government in the next few years. That said, in talking with residents who were finishing up their programs, loan repayment (or significant signing bonuses which can be used to that effect) is becoming increasingly common item in contracts for new physicians joining group practices.</p>
<p>It all really depends on whether or not universal health care reform happens, and no one really knows if it will though it seems kind of unlikely.</p>
<p>I agree with Bigredmed that an above average compensation is still part of the attraction.</p>
<p>As stated by MolSysBio, compensation is declining. Decreasing reimbursement from insurance companies is part of the reason. The cost to practice is also increasing. A small practice may have to shell out six figures for HIPPA "compliant" patient record software. One bright spot is a decrease, at least in TX, in the cost of malpractice insurance premiums.</p>
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but even tho they some compensation are decling, this profession is still better (financially and economically) than most other profesions.
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That's iffy. The question isn't necessarily how much more doctors make than other professions, it's opportunity cost. People who are smart enough to get into medical school and become doctors are smart enough to go into other high-end career paths where they could make even more money. Combine this with the high debt, years of education and training before beginning to make money, and rough lifestyle (at least during residency), and all of a sudden, it's not as nice as you may think.</p>
<p>Goldshadow, Investment banking and law are virtually the only careers in which one can make more than doctors. Entrepreneurship doesn't really count since many fail during recessions. Also, financially, medicine is often a better choice than the aforementioned careers because its more secure. No one is making the argument that one should go into medicine because it "only" makes more than other careers. As I've said, even from a financial standpoint, we have to look at the risk associated with other careers.</p>
<p>Most data I have seen still shows doctor salaries (compensation - expenses) as being strong even if declining. The previous statement that most physicians don't clear 6 figures seems to conflict with what I have seen. However, I obviously do not know for sure, INTERNET resources only tell so much...</p>
<p>Post #10 is true only if you refuse to consider that money is worth more when you earn it earlier. By those (correct) standards, repeated economic analyses have established that a TON of jobs -- including plumbing and garbage removal, to say nothing of engineering or other college-educated careers -- have greater lifetime earnings than some fields of medicine. Medicine is great if you want to brag about having a high salary. If you actually want to have any money, salary is not the correct measurement.</p>
<p>Even based on per-hour salaries, physicians make less than a lot of other jobs, including airline pilots, consultants, and chefs. (I haven't done the math, but I bet a non-trivial minority of teachers outearn a non-trivial proportion of doctors.) Even based on raw salaries, a lot of jobs pay more than some fields of medicine: management, sales if you're good, financial management, etc.</p>
<p>Post #10 is wrong regardless, but it's sort of correct if you insist on using a very poor measurement of lifetime earnings.</p>
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most docs don't make 6 figures after expenses, etc. only a few specific fields do
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<p>The lowest salary for a full time working PHYSICIAN is around $110,000.00, for the most part. It depends on the specialty and it varies by region. It also depends whether you are working for an HMO, the VA system, private practice, etc. But the point is that MOST doctors (unlike lawyers) do make six figure salaries. At the lower end of the spectrum are Pediatricians and Family Physicians. At the top are Neurosurgeons, Orthopedic Surgeons and Plastic Surgeons.</p>
<p>I have reviewed countless articles and AMA tables that show it clearly. I will find them and post the references.</p>
<p>I think what he's saying is that after things like MedMal coverage, paying off student loan debt, etc, a significant number (Not sure I agree with the "most") of docs don't clear six figures (I presume he means pre-tax as well, though after taxes, there would certainly be a lot more with take-home pay below six figs).</p>
<p>You can look through be specialty and by area.
This will at least give you a feel for the current climate.</p>
<p>I would say that the glory days of medicine and surgery are over...but still, I know of very few poor or unemployed physicians. </p>
<p>The quickest way for a physician (or anyone really) to become poor (and miserable), is to wind up in a bad marriage and go through a divorce (or multiple divorces- it happens). </p>
<p>If you are in it solely for the money, do IB or corporate law/management.</p>