Pay Kevin MD Like A French Doctor (Or Get Your Numbers Straight Before Blaming Doc Salaries For Overspending.)

Whenever new physician salary data is released, reporters and policy experts often compare doctor salaries in the United States to those of other countries: most notably, France. But Kevin Pho isn’t pleased.

That’s because because, practically on cue, Vox’s Sarah Kliff — regarded by thought leaders an excellent healthcare writer, is “uncharacteristically” lazy in framing physician salaries through a biased lens.

She writes, “Primary care doctors in the United States, do tend to earn a lot more than their counterparts abroad. One 2011 study, which looked at doctor salaries from 2008, found that the average primary care doctor in France earns about $95,000, compared to the $186,000 that physicians net in the United States.”

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Harvard Policy Researcher Says Obamacare Will Inadvertently Break Fee-For-Service Model

In Washington, Amitabh Chandra stood before a roomful of economists, policy makers and health care experts earlier this month. As director of Health Policy Research at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, he closed a presentation about the slowdown in health care spending over the last decade by citing an article in The New York Times.

“Changes in the way doctors and hospitals are paid — how much and by whom — have begun to curb the steady rise of health care costs in the New York region,” the article declared. “Costs are still going up faster than overall inflation, but the annual rate of increase is the lowest in 21 years.”

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More Dutch Inspiration – Needless ER Visits Waste Money

You know our style. We’re opinionated folks here. We speak liberally about the red tape that bloats healthcare costs—absurd ER charges for one. You’ve heard our spiel: We insist that affordable primary care like what we offer at Atlas MD can keep people out of the ER, and save everyone (patients’ wallets, insurance companies’ payouts, frazzled doctors’ sanity, even our nation’s budget) considerably.

Speaking of costly ER charges, NPR just wrote another piece about the topic. It’s also Dutch-related, and definitely worth checking out.

NPR writes, “In the United States, the growing number of uninsured Americans means more people do not have a family doctor or primary care provider. When they suffer a worrisome accident or problem, they may end up in the nearest hospital emergency room.”

And this is where we as a nation are just pouring money down the drain.

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John Green Breaks Down The Inefficiency Of American Healthcare Spending

UPWORTHY linked us to a fantastic video from John Green, astronomically prolific writer and thinker, who explains why healthcare is SO EXPENSIVE IN AMERICA. It’s seven-minutes long but he covers EVERYTHING. Did he mention the red tape? Of course he did. And he also mentioned a fundamental reason for Americans overpaying for EVERYTHING healthcare-related. It’s rooted our inability to negotiate the prices we pay. One thing he didn’t mention? Direct care. And to his point, we are a David up against a Goliath system. But before we turn to the government to negotiate for us, let’s consider the alternatives, doctors like us who can use our power to help patients get the care they need at a price they can afford.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Who is Hank? Hank is John’s brother. They have amassed over 300 million views on their vlog brothers YouTube channel where they take turns explaining things to each other.

Click through for some helpful links John Green provided along with the original video… Read more