Making less in the health care biz
Ezra Klein quotes T.R. Reid’s The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care:
It’s hard to imagine any private general practitioner in the United States charging just $27 for an office visit, or any specialist willing to settle for $34 for a normal consultation. Most of the fixed prices set by the health ministry amount to one third, and sometimes one quarter, of what the same treatment would cost in the United States. Not surprisingly, the cut-rate prices are reflected in doctors’ cut-rate incomes. Dr. Bonnaud said he works about sixty hours per week (although he does take the standard five weeks of vacation per year), and his net income has been about 40,000 Euros ($52,000) per annum…That’s roughly the average income for French general practitioner…the average French doctor is making about a quarter of what his counterparts in the United States would earn.
This fits with the costs in Cyprus. A trip the GP will be between 25 - 35 Euros, a follow up visit to make sure the treatment worked is usually free. X-Rays and ultra-sounds done in a local clinic will run out about 60 Euros and a couple of years back I had an MRI on my shoulder for about 250 Euros.
