How will the compensation for Canadian physicians look like in the future?

[MasterDoc]

In Canada, we have a population that is aging which will increase the demand for healthcare in the future. How will this affect compensation? Will the government allocate more to healthcare or will everyone get a smaller share of the pie? 

In the US, everyone is painting a doom and gloom picture of how healthcare will look with their reimbursements going down. 

As someone who is very concerned about the poor job market for surgeons/specialists and considering going to the US me school, is it safe to attend med school in Canada vs US?

[Butterfly_]

No matter what happens, If you’re going to be a doctor, you’re going to live a comfortable life. If you want to be rich, do something else.

[shikimate]

More provinces are likely to follow the steps of ON and AB in trying to impose a "hard cap" on total physician compensation. 

Physicians who are fee for service, especially high billers, are likely to see more scrutiny of their billing practice. Some services will likely be deemed "non-essential" and be de-listed from provincial insurance plans. Physicians on alternative compensation arrangements could be less impacted, but one would not be surprised if their compensation stagnate, or their workload increase.

New hires pose a tricky issue (as seen in AB), because with a hard cap it becomes a zero sum game. Perhaps some specialty will see waitlist increase (I remember an article quoting the era of rad onc on salary rather than FFS) when more are placed on non-FFS models.

One thing is for sure, the honey and nectar from the central bank printing press isn't going to public healthcare anytime soon, I'll leave you to figure out where it is flowing.

[jadawo]

On 9/12/2020 at 3:11 PM, shikimate said:

More provinces are likely to follow the steps of ON and AB in trying to impose a "hard cap" on total physician compensation. 

Physicians who are fee for service, especially high billers, are likely to see more scrutiny of their billing practice. Some services will likely be deemed "non-essential" and be de-listed from provincial insurance plans. Physicians on alternative compensation arrangements could be less impacted, but one would not be surprised if their compensation stagnate, or their workload increase.

New hires pose a tricky issue (as seen in AB), because with a hard cap it becomes a zero sum game. Perhaps some specialty will see waitlist increase (I remember an article quoting the era of rad onc on salary rather than FFS) when more are placed on non-FFS models.

One thing is for sure, the honey and nectar from the central bank printing press isn't going to public healthcare anytime soon, I'll leave you to figure out where it is flowing.

Kind of an old thread but do you mind elaborating how the hard cap works in AB and ON? How do they determine a number?