[CharlesinCharge]

Richard,

I am not sure exactly how much doctors in Germany earn, but I GUARANTEE it is less than in the U.S. I have read surveys and U.S. doctors are the highest paid in the world, bar none. Like I said, I also saw the itemized bill for my ADR in Germany and my XLIF here in the U.S., and the differences were staggering! I even recall that the hospital fee in Germany (surgical room) was only about $1,500 whereas for my XLIF procedure they charged $8,000 (and it was an outpatient procedure, I left that same day!).

Socialized medicine has its problems and issues (I have read that in Canada people routinely wait 6-8 months to get an MRI, I can get one here within 2 weeks), but they pay less money because the government is subsidizing the cost. I am pretty sure that is at least part of the reason why one can get a procedure like ADR so much cheaper overseas than in the U.S.