I’m amazed at how American medical salaries are orders of magnitude out of proportion with other western countries. Here in Ireland an anaesthesiologist makes about 100k€/year, and about 60k€/year after tax. That wouldn’t even cover malpractice insurance in the US.

Salaries for other doctors and surgeons are similar - a neurosurgeon will make perhaps 4x-5x less money here than in the States. Meanwhile cost of living in Dublin is about the same as major American cities like Seattle with one of the highest rents in Europe.

Perhaps this means that Ireland has a better health care system? Assuming that your surgical mortality rate is similar to that of the United States.

Realize that the cost of basic medical insurance in the United States, for you and your family (spouse and children), is now approaching $7,000/year USD. It can easily exceed $550/month. This is tied to your employer. And this is just insurance. You still have to pay some percentage of the cost if you actually have to perform the procedure.

Actually, without subsidies, it's around $3500 / month for a family and that's with a $5k - $10k deductible. I have a collegue that retired after inheriting a lot of money and that's what he pays for health insurance.

Most small business owners that I take care of are on their spouse's insurance.

If Americans don't think that the cost of health insurance is destroying entrepreneurship, they're idiots. For example, if you're single and want to open your own garage to fix cars, you may have to compete with the shop down the road that doesn't worry about insurance bc they're on their spouses. So that shop has $3500 a month less costs than yours.

Keep in mind your med schools are nearly free for EU citizens. American doctors usually graduate with $500K or more in debt, so their salary has to cover debt payments plus insurance.

Comparing cost of living in a country with proper healthcare and a significantly less litigious population isn't like-for-like.

Actually, anesthesiologists are middle of the pac in regards to malpractice. Whenever someone quotes income levels for physicians, it's usually after all expenses, including malpractice. It really doesn't matter how much a doctor pays in malpractice, it's what their net income is after. Neurosurgeons pay close to $100k / year, but make $500k+.

Anyway, anesthesia is much safer than 30 years ago

https://theanesthesiaconsultant.com/do-anesthesiologists-hav...