For those not originally native to Australia, especially places like the United States where healthcare is a strikingly different, far more profiteering venture, the idea of working as a general practitioner or any kind of medical profession beyond the US borders may be a little offputting initially.
We aren’t here to get political, of course, but we are going to be blunt and analytical when we look at what a job as a general practitioner in the United States is like compared to that of Australia and places like it. You might have considered a GP job in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane or Perth. Overall, there are quite a few advantages to working as a general practitioner in Australia, and will get to that in a minute, but we have to talk about the most crucial thing when it comes to any career, that being money.
First, let’s dispel a little misunderstanding when it comes to universal healthcare systems implemented in places like Australia, the EU and Canada, compared to the admittedly archaic approach that the United States still uses. In the United States, unless someone has some sort of health insurance or qualifies for the very hard to acquire subsidize health care plans provided by the government, all visits to general practitioners, all medications and any medical assistance required in a hospital have to come out of pocket. This also artificially spikes the theoretical wages of general practitioners in the United States and countries that still use the same older model for healthcare. However, this does not mean that universal healthcare systems are free. They are most decidedly not, they are just intended to make things more accessible by thinks not being directly out of pocket in the immediate time of need. Conversely, taxes offset the is very similar to the way employees may pay into healthcare benefits with their employer in the United States.
Now, it is worthy of note that the only reason a universal healthcare system hasn’t been implemented in the United States is simply because it is far harder to find one that complies with the significant multitude of different cultures, mindsets and ways of life that make up the United States. Yes, Australia is a very diverse place, but it isn’t the hodgepodge that the United States is by any stretch.
So, what does a general practitioner expect to earn in Australia? Somewhere between two hundred thousand dollars and three hundred fifty thousand dollars yearly is the average GP salary for practitioners in Australia. However, Australian medical facilities tend to offer forms of tenure and job security that the United States can’t offer to even long-time doctors, and obsessions with pushing certain pharmaceuticals aren’t present either, providing for a far more pleasant work environment than most medical facilities in the United States could ever permit. There are also various government incentives that can make it more profitable and equitable for general practitioners in Australia, though these vary wildly from one state to the next as well as depending upon whether or not you are in a populous city or out in the rural areas of the outback or the like.
In the end, because of the lack of an order profit-driven model, while the initial wages may be lower for a general practitioner in Australia, there are opportunities for promotion, there is far less unnecessary bureaucracy and general practitioners are regarded much more as heroes rather than people in it for the money, earning a lot more merit and respect from the community. It is, in the end, a far more rewarding career in places like Australia, and given that the economy is much more stable and predictable in Australia than the United States, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year is truly nothing to sneeze at in the end!
