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Friday, February 08, 2008

The U.S. Physician Shortage

The paradox: getting an appointment with a doctor especially a specialist is extremely difficult. On the other hand, we constantly hear that the U.S. spends more per person on health care than any other country.

So, how is it that with all that spending we have the symptoms of a physician shortage?

Does the U.S. have a physician shortage? Here is the data:




GDP data from International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook (WEO) Database September 2000

Physician data from World Health Organization

Numbers graphed are ratio of physicians per $1,000,000 of GDP


More Data: physicians per 1000 population for the 80 countries with the most physicians. The U.S. is 37th.

Rank Country Phys Per 1000 Pop

1 Cuba 66567 5.91
2 Belarus 45027 4.55
3 Belgium 46268 4.49
4 Greece 47944 4.38
5 Russian 609043 4.25
6 Italy 241000 4.20
7 Turkmenistan 20032 4.18
8 Georgia 20962 4.09
9 Lithuania 13682 3.97
10 Israel 24577 3.82
11 Uruguay 12384 3.65
12 Switzerland 25921 3.61
13 Armenia 10983 3.59
14 Bulgaria 28128 3.56
15 Azerbaijan 29687 3.55
16 Kazakhstan 54613 3.54
17 Czech Republic 35960 3.51
18 Portugal 34440 3.42
19 Austria 27413 3.38
20 Germany 277885 3.37
21 France 203487 3.37
22 Hungary 32877 3.33
23 Spain 135300 3.30
24 Dem Pple Korea 74597 3.29
25 Sweden 29122 3.28
26 Lebanon 11505 3.25
27 Slovakia 17172 3.18
28 Finland 16446 3.16
29 Netherlands 50854 3.15
30 Norway 14200 3.13
31 Argentina 108800 3.01
32 Ukraine 143202 2.95
33 Denmark 15653 2.93
34 Ireland 11141 2.79
35 Uzbekistan 71623 2.74
36 Moldova 11246 2.64


37 USA 730801 2.56


38 Kyrgyzstan 12902 2.51
39 Australia 47875 2.47
40 Poland 95272 2.47
41 Croatia 10820 2.44
42 United Kingdom 133641 2.30
43 Canada 66583 2.14
44 Serbia and Mont 21738 2.06
45 Tajikistan 12697 2.03
46 Jordan 11398 2.03
47 Mexico 195897 1.98
48 Japan 251889 1.98
49 Venezuela 48000 1.94
50 Romania 42538 1.90
51 Dominican Rep 15670 1.88
52 Korea 75045 1.57
53 Ecuador 18335 1.48
54 Syria 23742 1.40
55 Saudi Arabia 34261 1.37
56 Colombia 58761 1.35
57 Turkey 96000 1.35
58 Tunisia 13330 1.34
59 Bolivia 10329 1.22
60 Peru 29799 1.17
61 Brazil 198153 1.15
62 Algeria 35368 1.13
63 Chile 17250 1.09
64 China 1364000 1.06
65 South Africa 34829 0.77
66 Pakistan 116298 0.74
67 Malaysia 16146 0.70
68 Iraq 17022 0.66
69 India 645825 0.60
70 Philippines 44287 0.58
71 Sri Lanka 10479 0.55
72 Egypt 38485 0.54
73 Viet Nam 42327 0.53
74 Morocco 15991 0.51
75 Iran 31394 0.45
76 Thailand 22435 0.37
77 Myanmar 17791 0.36
78 Nigeria 34923 0.28
79 Bangladesh 38485 0.26
80 Indonesia 29499 0.13



Physician Compensation Comparing the U.S. and Europe

U.S. salaried general practitioners receive the highest compensation among reporting countries:

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U.S. self-employed general practitioners receive the highest compensation among reporting countries:

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U.S. salaried specialists are tied for the highest compensation among reporting countries:

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U.S. self-employed specialists receive highest compensation among reporting countries except for Belgium and Netherlands:

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Source: OECD, Link

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