How much do doctors get paid in USA compared to the UK?

I know they get paid more, I was just wondering how much more.. say I was a surgeon in the UK (NHS), and I got a green card and everything and went to work in the USA, how much more would I be paid? How would that compare to a private doctor in the UK?

Obama has started introducing state healthcare plans so this may mean more of a fixed wage for doctors in the US.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I've got a question that doesn't deserve its own thread. If you do your degree in the UK, and then move to the US to do internship etc, assuming it all goes to plan, then you'll start work after your degree? this would mean that the other doctors in the hospital would be around 26, and you'd be 23-24, making you one of the youngest doctors in the country?

Firstly, you don't just need a green card to practice medicine in the US. As far as I am aware (and I may be wrong), you'll need to sit the USMLE and do your residency as well.

Doctors in the US do get paid more than doctors in the UK quite easily. This table shows the results of a survey of doctors' wages carried out in 2007...it's a bit outdated and salaries would probably have increased I think:

http://bp0.blogger.com/_jyVH1tFBOXI/RxbeEJuAvGI/AAAAAAAABAI/qTiPegUk2FI/s1600-h/2007-Merrit-Salary-Survey.gif

If you can't be bothered to read that, basically the average salary varies from $160K to $530K depending on speciality.

Another thing worth mentioning the more cases you do, the more you get paid in the US as opposed to the time you work in the UK.

However, be aware that it is not uncommon for doctors in the US to work 80 hours a week and there is the whole thing over insurance as well.




It isn't simply a case of moving to the US and automatically becoming a doctor there. You will have to sit the USMLE Step 1 and 2 (CK and CS) to apply for a residency position. See here is interested: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=24806495#post24806495

Obama has started introducing state healthcare plans so this may mean more of a fixed wage for doctors in the US.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I've got a question that doesn't deserve its own thread. If you do your degree in the UK, and then move to the US to do internship etc, assuming it all goes to plan, then you'll start work after your degree? this would mean that the other doctors in the hospital would be around 26, and you'd be 23-24, making you one of the youngest doctors in the country?

thanks, helpful




yep, that's what i was wondering about, the whole obama thing.. but i don't know much about that.

and don't worry, i'd liek to know too.

A lot of people fail to take into account malpractice insurance which can be up to 30-40% of your salary, the take home pay is not as high as people think

Really? Excuse my ignorance, but is common practice to be regularly sued in the US, if mistakes have been made? 30% of salary sounds awfully high to me.

Indeed malpractice insurance is a big deal in the US... But one way around it is to work for a Hospital or HMO, which pays your malpractice insurance for you, but you do get paid at a lower amount as compared to your private practice colleagues...

When I was a researcher at NYU medical center in NYC in the early '90s, I worked for two Neonatologists and they made about $160K, which was at the lowest end of the spectrum, but they were fully qualified...

Contrast that with the OB/GYN doc who was clearing $1,000,000.00 But he was smart because the hospital was paying his malpractice insurance, as there were for the Neonatologist...

He was/is very lucky because many people are choosing not to specialise in OB/GYN in the US because of the risks involved in that specialty, because you are on the hook for any malformations/disformities of a child, up until adolescence.... and the malpractice insurance is astronomical!

Was he being paid $1 million by the hospital?

If not, I thought the hospital insurance only covers in-hospital cases?

A LOT more, because up until recently, they only had to treat people with money who could pay them hundreds of dollars just for a consultation outside the ER.
Which is why I prefer medicine in the UK, it's good pay, but you get much less people just going into it for the money, so you therefore end up, I think, with better doctors in it for the patients

retary
He was netting a million from his patients... at that time each delivery me made was at the least $5000.00 his only overhead was his secretary as most other expenses were paid by the hospital... And all his cases were hospital cases because they were delivered in the their hospital...

Thanks for explaining. The retard comment wasn't really necessary though

Oh I apologize, I think I was trying to spell the word 'secretary' but failed and it looked like I was saying retard... again my apologies... I would never call you retarded, I don't know you and am not that insensitive