How much have doctor's incomes risen vs. inflation?

Factual Questions
1

Every time I see a news report on “skyrocketing medical costs” I suspect this:
That the main factor is that insurance (government or private) has removed normal “free-market” factors holding down costs.
If people only see a co-pay at the time of the doctor visit, and completely forget the cost of insurance to them, their employer, or the government.

So the actual amount the doctor gets, instead of being up front, is a hidden cost.

Am I right? (Yes, I know the same applies to pills and hospital costs, too, but let’s discuss them later, not on this thread.)

Have doctor’s incomes risen a lot faster and higher than other incomes, and inflation generally?

2

http://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/0304/0304.compmon.html

That was all I could find. It is net income though, not gross.

3

I’d be surprised to discover that doctor’s wages are (or should be) a large percentage of medical costs. Any more than a chef’s salary should be a high percentage of the cost to run a restaurant.

Also, if things work in any sort of rational way, the cost of doctors should be a decreasing percentage of things as time goes on. Technology brings an ever-increasing benefit to the table while the doctors value-add remains relatively static. (i.e. the increasing value of doctors is really limited to their ability to use/recommend/prescribe the new technology value)

I certainly agree with your assertion that medical costs have gone up because free market forces have been lessened.

4

Somehow, I was thinking of salaries prior to '95. Lots of people had a good year in 95.

I’m also curious, although I expect data is a lot scarcer, about how doctors fared in the US vs, say, Britain, where the goverment is more concerned with watching their fees.

5

I have to agree that doctors mostly “use/recommend/prescribe”. Whenever I’ve posed the OP to others, some will insist they are usper scientists working miracles. But I think those are mostly doctors in labs, not the doctors you might actually meet and pay for. There are some certified geniuses in the software business, but none you will meet and get a steep bill from - those are the just-average neighbor kids that lucked into the right hobby.