General Practicioner salary

[Grandpa2390]

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I want to be a General Practitioner or Family Doctor and I do not really care about the money (otherwise I would specialize in neurology the specialty that interest me). That being said, though I do not care about making a lot of money, I want to make enough to live comfortably. I read that GPs make roughly 130,000 a year. Is that before or after Insurance. If they make about 130 grand before insurance, how much does the insurance leave them with. I would atleast like to make 100,000 a year starting after I pay insurance. that way I can pay off my debts and live comfortably.

 

[sixpence]

sounds like you don't care about money

 

[Grandpa2390]

Let me rephrase that, I don't care about making a lot of money. I don't want to live in a fancy house or drive fancy cars. But I do want to be able to pay of debt and buy a car and house. 100,000 a year is not rich, it isn't poor either.

 

[Instatewaiter]

Do you mean GP (ie 1 year of residency) or family practice/ Internal medicine (3 years or residency)?

GPs are going to make less than FP or IM but none are paid that well. Neuro also doesn't make that much either in the scheme of things compared to say neurosurg or ortho.

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

I want to be a General Practitioner or Family Doctor and I do not really care about the money (otherwise I would specialize in neurology the specialty that interest me). That being said, though I do not care about making a lot of money, I want to make enough to live comfortably. I read that GPs make roughly 130,000 a year. Is that before or after Insurance. If they make about 130 grand before insurance, how much does the insurance leave them with. I would atleast like to make 100,000 a year starting after I pay insurance. that way I can pay off my debts and live comfortably.

Insurance rates vary according to locale, but they shouldn't run $30K for a FP doc.

 

[afugazzi]

I'm confused if you don't care about the money and neuro interests you, why not that?

 

[nisarg2010]

I want to be a General Practitioner or Family Doctor and I do not really care about the money (otherwise I would specialize in neurology the specialty that interest me). That being said, though I do not care about making a lot of money, I want to make enough to live comfortably. I read that GPs make roughly 130,000 a year. Is that before or after Insurance. If they make about 130 grand before insurance, how much does the insurance leave them with. I would atleast like to make 100,000 a year starting after I pay insurance. that way I can pay off my debts and live comfortably.

If only there were more people like you, the world would be a much better place.

Thank you for being such a cool guy and good luck on your endeavors.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

If neurology interest you.. why wouldn't you want to do that? I mean its only a extra year of residency compared to FP. Is there some underlining reason to why not?

 

[ohgodidonteven]

I think you'll find the 'money doesn't interest me' tune will change when you get to the real world.

 

[MaryLennox]

did any of y'all catch this interesting article? it basically says money does make you happier in the sense that you've got all your needs met, but the increase in happiness pans out at around 75K per year.

of course, the real question isn't how much you'll be making . . . but how much of that paycheck will be getting eaten up by your giant student loans for the first 5-10 years

 

[akinetopsia]

Some people can be happy on 45k a year as long as they have a roof over their head, food on the table and someone to share it with.

Some people can't be happy with a $14 million ranch out west somewhere (or penthouse in NYC, or anything big in between).

In the words of the poet B.I.G., "It's like the more money we come across / The more problems we see."

It's great you don't care about money. I care about money to the extent that I want to be able to have a family and provide for them, and give a good life to my kids the way my parents have done for me. I don't need extravagant things but I don't want to live in poverty.

If you don't care about money, your tune may change when you have student loans to pay off. As other people have written, sometimes you have the best of intentions going into medical school, feeling like you're a great fit for a career as a primary care physician. Then you see your student loan debt (if you have it, most people do), and you may end up seeking out a better-reimbursed specialty. In an ideal world, debt wouldn't be hanging over our heads and having that kind of influence over specialty choice, but we don't live in an ideal world.

 

[McBatCommander]

It always bothers me that people can't ask questions about money without being criticized. Seriously, would you go through all this work to only make 30k a year? EVEN if you had no student loans?

Money is the reason why people work in the first place. Of course it's gonna have a big part in the end, even if that's not why you chose the job you like.

 

[Vadoff]

A lot of posts, no answers.

The 130k average is after insurance, it's usually already considered/paid for when your salary is established.

You'll only be paying for your insurance if you don't have a salary (ex. you run your own practice/clinic).

 

[ILikeDrugs]

Do you mean GP (ie 1 year of residency) or family practice/ Internal medicine (3 years or residency)?

GPs are going to make less than FP or IM but none are paid that well. Neuro also doesn't make that much either in the scheme of things compared to say neurosurg or ortho.

Wait. What? There's a one year residency program?

 

[Vadoff]

Wait. What? There's a one year residency program?

Nope 🙁

 

[LuciusVorenus]

Wait. What? There's a one year residency program?

Yes, to be a GP only 1 year is needed.

 

[Parts Unknown]

Wait. What? There's a one year residency program?

Not per se, but you can obtain a medical license after 1 year of post-graduate training and passage of Step 3. Then you can hang a shingle and do whatever it is you do.

 

[GoodmanBrown]

Not per se, but you can obtain a medical license after 1 year of post-graduate training and passage of Step 3. Then you can hang a shingle and do whatever it is you do.

With the huge caveat that insurance companies won't pay you and hospitals won't let you work in their building because you're not board eligible/board certified in anything.

So without a full residency, you're really, really limiting what you can do as a doctor.

EDIT: This is true in the US at least. I have no idea how it works for other countries.

 

[GoodmanBrown]

A lot of posts, no answers.

The 130k average is after insurance, it's usually already considered/paid for when your salary is established.

You'll only be paying for your insurance if you don't have a salary (ex. you run your own practice/clinic).

While it really varies, typically $130K would be after business expenses which malpractice insurance would fall under. That number does seem a bit low as well... Go to the Family Practice forum for more info.

 

[theVster]

I want to be a General Practitioner or Family Doctor and I do not really care about the money (otherwise I would specialize in neurology the specialty that interest me). That being said, though I do not care about making a lot of money, I want to make enough to live comfortably. I read that GPs make roughly 130,000 a year. Is that before or after Insurance. If they make about 130 grand before insurance, how much does the insurance leave them with. I would atleast like to make 100,000 a year starting after I pay insurance. that way I can pay off my debts and live comfortably.

130k is usually post-insurance.

I would suggest Internal Medicine preferably in a group practice, and quite honestly you won't necessarily be limited by that sort of figure. It depends more upon your patient volume when you're a PCP if you're in private practice and by what your hospital offers you if you're employed. If you want to specialize in Neuro I'd go ahead and do it... it's honestly just an extra year of residency and you do make more than internal med with about the same sort of lifestyle.

I would not suggest family practice if you want to be a family man (ironic eh)--especially not if you're working alone, because your hours will generally be horrific.

 

[rawkfist]

hahaha

literally what i read was this:
i dont care about money. once again i dont care about money. im asking this but i dont care about money, will i make money?

 

[GoodmanBrown]

I would not suggest family practice if you want to be a family man (ironic eh)--especially not if you're working alone, because your hours will generally be horrific.

A lot of people in the FM forum would disagree with this statement. FM has the option of not working in the hospital at all. Which means you never have to go anywhere while on call. If it's too worrisome for some phone reassurance, you send them to the ER. In general, FM offers lots of different scenarios for work/call.

Blue Dog (an FM attending) calls family medicine the ultimate lifestyle specialty, and I tend to agree after reading his reasoning.

 

[cleothecat]

In Ontario FPs can net over 250-300 k especially in under serviced areas, even within commuting distance of major cities.

It may be semi socialized medicine, but at least it is not OBAMA care!

 

[Baruba]

In Ontario FPs can net over 250-300 k especially in under serviced areas, even within commuting distance of major cities.

It may be semi socialized medicine, but at least it is not OBAMA care!

250-300k with no night/weekend calls at all?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

A lot of people in the FM forum would disagree with this statement. FM has the option of not working in the hospital at all. Which means you never have to go anywhere while on call. If it's too worrisome for some phone reassurance, you send them to the ER. In general, FM offers lots of different scenarios for work/call.

Blue Dog (an FM attending) calls family medicine the ultimate lifestyle specialty, and I tend to agree after reading his reasoning.

Link to Blue Dogs reasoning pl0x 🙂.

 

[GoodmanBrown]

Link to Blue Dogs reasoning pl0x 🙂.

Here's a thread where Blue Dog does some posting on his thoughts on FM lifestyle. I like this one because it's quite extensive and has some others chime in.

Here's the thread with my quote about the "ultimate lifestyle specialty."

Let's look at family medicine objectively:

1) Relatively short residency
2) Relatively low malpractice incidence and insurance costs
3) Virtually limitless job opportunities
4) Broad scope of practice that you can tailor to what you enjoy doing
5) Wide variety of pathology (undifferentiated patients)
6) Regular hours (no nights and weekends unless you want to do them)
7) As much vacation as you can afford to take
8) Easy to work part-time, if that's what you want to do
9) Ability to perform cosmetic procedures, if you want to
10) Readily transferrable skills to other fields (urgent care, public health, hospitalist, etc.)

I could go on. IMO, FM is the ultimate "lifestyle specialty."

 

[TexasPhysician]

250-300k with no night/weekend calls at all?

You can make this in the US as an FP as well. Its not the average salary, but its no where near impossible.

$130k/year would be about average for take-home pay after taxes and everything else in TX.

 

[lll1I1lII1lll1I]

did any of y'all catch this interesting article? it basically says money does make you happier in the sense that you've got all your needs met, but the increase in happiness pans out at around 75K per year.

of course, the real question isn't how much you'll be making . . . but how much of that paycheck will be getting eaten up by your giant student loans for the first 5-10 years

It says money and happiness are correlated, but does it show causation? Of course happy people make more money - happy people tend to be more confident, less likely to have mental diseases, live a well adjusted life, etc. When was the last time you saw an emo kid become a CEO or a doctor?