FunForOne

Here ya go, old article but says that Canadian doctors make less than US nurses.

Good luck with that bypass surgery guys.


The 'greedy doctors' myth
After spending a decade in university, going $100,000 in debt and taking on life-or-death responsibility, doctors are wondering why they make the same salary as auto plant workers. Dave Rogers reports.

Dave Rogers
The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, October 29, 2002
CREDIT: Tim Fraser, The Ottawa Citizen

Mark Stevens, a skilled tradesman at the Ford plant in Windsor, earns about $90,000 a year. Workers willing to put in 56 to 60 hours a week at any of the Big Three auto plants can increase their uncome to up to $130,000 a year after completing a free apprenticeship program.

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With take-home pay lower than some auto plant workers, no fringe benefits and increasing overhead, many family doctors are asking themselves why anyone would want their jobs.

"I essentially make what my plumber or auto mechanic earns once I have paid my overhead," said Daniel Maher, a Glebe physician who has been practising medicine since 1991. "Why spend nine years in university for all the responsibility and risk of lawsuits to make what a beginning engineer would earn?"

Frustration over pay, many family doctors argue, is leading some physicians to leave their practices for other work and is turning students away from a profession that once promised a healthy income. The result: there are not enough family physicians to go around.

The numbers tell the story. A university medical education takes nine years, usually leaving new doctors with $100,000 in debt plus office rent, support staff salaries, equipment expenses, insurance and other overhead costs that devour at least 40 per cent of their earnings.

A family doctor bills OHIP $54 for a one-hour patient checkup (the gas or fuel oil company can charge $110 for a furnace checkup). A doctor receives $25 for a minor assessment while paying an average overhead cost of $15 to $17 per visit.

Family doctors and general practitioners in 1999-2000, working a typical 54.7-hour week, on average billed OHIP $168,300 a year, according to Ontario Medical Association figures. Their average net earnings after overhead expenses is $99,300, the OMA reports.

That means their pay is less than skilled tradespeople willing to work 50 to 60 hours a week, plus some weekends, installing and repairing machinery at vehicle assembly plants in Windsor, Oshawa, Oakville and St. Thomas.

Other tradespeople can earn more than $75,000 a year, as much or more than a doctor working a 40-hour week.

Geof Botting, head of Ottawa's Regional Centre for Excellence in Skilled Occupations, says efficient drywall workers, carpet installers and automatic transmission rebuilders can earn more than $80,000 annually. The centre is a partnership among area school boards and community colleges to promote skilled trades as a career option.

Mr. Botting said good auto-body repair workers earn $70,000 to $80,000 a year.

Skilled autoworkers willing to work 56 to 60 hours a week, plus some weekends, at General Motors, Ford or DaimlerChrysler can earn up to $130,000 a year after completing a free apprenticeship program, according to John Bettes, a Canadian Auto Workers spokesman.

Tool and die makers, electricians, industrial mechanics and millwrights working at auto assembly plants earn $34 an hour.

"The average guy makes $70,000 to $75,000 a year, but there can be extremes where people make well over $100,000 a year," Mr. Bettes said. "If you worked every third weekend you would get $100,000 and if you worked two out of three weekends you would probably get over $130,000." These workers need to have done a four-year, 8,000-hour apprenticeship, plus continual upgrades, with auto companies, parts suppliers or aerospace corporations. The schooling is paid for by the corporations.

Being a doctor, on the other hand, is not nearly as lucrative as most people think, Dr. Maher said.

"I know a lot of people working in the government with a bachelor's degree who do little most of the time and make $60,000 a year plus benefits. I make $75,000 a year with no benefits. There is no pension, no sick days, nothing."

Most doctors work extra hours if they can to earn extra income, he said. He said a family doctor working an average 37.5 hours a week will gross about $132,000 a year and spend at least a third of his income on overhead.

Walk-in clinics take an average of 43 per cent of doctors' incomes for overhead costs, Dr. Maher said.

"Three years ago, when the Coalition of Family Doctors of Ontario asked people what they thought their doctors earned for seeing them, they estimated it was $120 for a physical examination and $50 for a cold. The real answers to those questions are $54 for the physical and $27.50 for the cold.

"It is half or less of what people think we are making. When people think we earn $150,000 a year, it is only $75,000. I know a lot of engineers fresh out of university who earn starting salaries of $70,000 a year plus bonuses."

Dr. Maher said when he travels to visit doctor friends in the United States and explains he makes the equivalent of $55,000 U.S. a year, they don't believe him because that is what nurses earn there.

"When it comes to negotiations, the government says we are just greedy doctors," Dr. Maher said. "The average person just nods his head and says we earn $200,000 a year.

"The government is paying GPs $105 to $110 an hour. If you take off the overhead of $35 an hour you are left with $75, which is what I am making. Who is going to spend nine years in university, run up a $100,000 debt and accept all the stress and responsibility to make what an electrician is making?"

It will take a salary of $150,000 a year without benefits for a 37.5-hour week or $130,000 salary with benefits to attract more Ontario doctors into family medicine, Dr. Maher said.

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