Saying German doctors are "the highest paid academics" isn't really useful information. How much are they paid? Is it comparable to an American physician? German docs can be the highest paid academics in German by a factor of 10, but if American docs make 3x what any German doc makes it's kind of a moot point.

To do a real analysis you'd need to see a breakdown of where the money goes. What percentage is to a physician's salary, hospital overhead, insurance premiums, etc. for both countries and see where the big disparities are. My guess is, everything is more expensive on the US side, including salaries, and adds up to the big difference in price.