<p>It’s essentially guaranteed that salaries will go down, if not in absolute terms then certainly in relative terms over time (eg adjusted for inflation and relative to other jobs). </p>
<p>There are a lot uncertainties about the future of universal healthcare in the US, although a few things that are certain is that the problem isn’t going away anytime soon and any solution will require a lot of money to come from somewhere… one source will be taxes and another will have to be cost cutting in the ‘system’ with salaries being the easiest and first place where money can be saved.</p>
<p>Private elective medicine (cosmetic stuff, boob jobs) probably won’t be effected that much in terms of salaries because they’re largely out of ‘the system’. </p>
<p>I imagine we might eventually see government subsidies for medical school as part of an eventual healthcare package in order to make up for the negative pressure on salaries, although I’ve never really heard anything seriously discussed from any politicians as of yet. </p>
<p>The medical profession will still certainly be well paid relative to the general workforce, but you’re not going to get rich. It will pay well, but considering the amount of education it takes to get there, hours worked, strain on family and relationships, dealing with the ever increasing level of red tape and bureaucracy it really doesn’t pay THAT well. If you’re not willing to do the work for free, then you probably should be doing something else. </p>
<p>You only need to read some of the earlier posts by current physicians on these forum threads to see that negative salary pressures are occurring now with the private HMOs… </p>
<p>I’ll spare the whole “if your going into medicine because you think you’ll get a lot of money then you’ll be gravely disappointed” comments since that’s already been previously discussed to death.</p>