Honestly, that doesn't sound too different from the way things are here except that the doctors are billing insurance companies instead of a government agency.

US doctors get to bill more.

But I have heard a few news stories about doctors who had moved to the US moving back to Canada, because the medical insurance bureaucracy was impossible to deal with.

I would think that there must be some downward pressure on doctor salaries from insurance companies.

US doctors get to bill more.

It's weird, but when I get the statements from the insurance company, the doctor bills twice as much as the insurance company is willing to pay, and I don't make up the difference. So I'm wondering where the extra money comes from. Sad people without insurance?

Doctors working at academic institutions make significantly less than doctors in private practice and still have to pay off those same medical school bills. It varies a lot depending on specialty of course.

Man, my brother I love him but WHY can't he plan ahead like a normal person?! He let's me know today that they'll be in town tonight (picking up a friend who's in from freaking Taiwan so they must have know she was coming weeks ago!) and want to have dinner. And they want to have dinner someplace with lobster that is also a good place to bring their one-year old. Jesus! The one-year old is also the only reason I'm even thinking of trying to meet up with them. I'm exhausted and was really really loving the idea of putting on my inside pants and sitting on my sofa tonight!

Oh and the other thing about doctors' salaries here not being all that they may seem is the prohibitively large cost of malpractice insurance.

Although I'm sure this woman & her doctor husband who have no debt will be fine.

I had to have a masters degree to teach in CT, and twelve years and two state and one national certifications later, I am not even making half a third of what an average doctor makes when s/he starts. My debts are paltry compared to theirs because I went to a state school on scholarship and interned to offset my graduate school costs, but I'm still paying the damn things, 11 years later.

I know this is news to none of you, and I'm not arguing that doctors aren't very important, but sometimes the inequity just makes me want to scream.

And they want to have dinner someplace with lobster that is also a good place to bring their one-year old.

Huh. It might be entertaining to have the one-year-old kill a lobster.

Huh. It might be entertaining to have the one-year-old kill a lobster.

That's what the Klingons do.

"Hah! Young Kelek has slain the crustacean! It is an omen of good fortune for House Klibbitydoowop! Let the feast begin!"

Huh. It might be entertaining to have the one-year-old kill a lobster.

heh. yeah! I was like does she ONLY eat lobster??? Does she like shellfish? Because it is kinda easier to, say, find a kid-suitable place that serves crabcakes in freaking Baltimore.

Kids like the live lobster tanks, but maybe not as young as one.