The Biggest Driver of Health Care Costs that We Don't Talk About

Interesting to see this in the Weekly Standard:

In discussions of America’s high health care costs, surprisingly little attention is paid to salaries and wages. Yet the fact that medical jobs simply pay more than those in other sectors is beyond dispute. A physician practicing in a primary care setting, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, earned an average of just over $200,000 in 2010, while specialists averaged over $355,000 (the highest of any professional category tracked). By comparison, lawyers average just over $110,000, airline pilots about $92,000, and chartered actuaries (who calculate risk for insurance companies and must pass complex exams longer and arguably more difficult than the medical boards) about $150,000.

The piece goes on to point out that in fact all salaries in health care are higher than they are for equivalent positions in other fields, right down to the janitors in hospitals.  And comparisons with the rest of the world reveal that US doctors make much more than their counterparts in other countries.  In spite of this, health outcomes are no better than they are elsewhere.

I'm a beneficiary of this- I work in a psychiatric hospital as a social work administrator.  I used to work in a private non profit agency, but I make more money in the medical side of the field.

The bald reality is that one person's "waste" is what I call "salary", and I don't want mine cut.  But the fact is that if we're serious about cutting health care costs, whether our solutions are from right or left, we're going to have to accept lower pay or fewer jobs in health care. 

I'm not happy about it personally, but it's still reality.