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0 pointsthrowaway57528y ago0 comments

I think the attitude you have is really common among doctors, too.

I will say thought, that this is a really typical path in the US, at least:

* 4 years undergraduate ($200K debt, high competition/workload)

* 4 years medical school ($250K debt, high stress/workload, 50% odds of not being accepted)

* ~3 years residency (pay only $50K/yr, famously high stress/workload, possibility of being separated from loved ones or making hard choices in residency match)

So assuming starting undergrad at age 17, you have had a tough 11 years and are at least $300K in debt by the time you are 28 and getting your certification. This is ignoring specialties with fellowships. I don't have the time, but I'm sure it's possible to estimate the quality of the time sacrificed to education and lost compensation during that time and then amortize that over a typical career.

And the field is different... after all of that training they get to spend an inordinate amount of time doing paperwork/fighting with insurers, which (seems to be) leading to more group practices with workloads like those described in the article.

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pixelmonkey8y ago

Bingo. Also, there is a nontrivial chance of going to med school but not getting into a residency program. And, residency is typically 4 years, not 3. In the case of my partner, she did undergrad (4) + post-bacc (2) + med school (4) + residency (4) + optional fellowship (3). So call it 12-17 years of training. Then, and only then, do you make a "starting doctor salary". But now you have hundreds of thousands in debt, interest payments, malpractice insurance, and, in some specialties, still insane hours.

If you're a doctor who is "doing it for the money", you have simply not understood the concept of opportunity cost. :)

throwaway5752OP8y ago

I tried to err on the side of understating things (I found higher figures for cost estimates as well knowing residencies/fellowships could go a lot longer... and that was ignoring continuting education/certification/training and costs of running a practice). I think that people see the dollar figures for some specialist and make two errors: extrapolate it to all doctors and ignore the huge investment/risk to get there.

Congratulations to your partner (and you)! I for one still think its a noble and altruistic calling.

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