Comparison of General Physician's Income Throughout the World

Physicians play a key role in the effectiveness of the health system in each country. Providing favorable job conditions for physicians, including appropriate payment system increase the quality of medical services. The aim of this study was to compare general physicians’ (GP) income and taxation system in Iran and other countries. In this study, GP's income in Iran and 16 other countries was compared with per capita income in these countries. Data was extracted from peer reviewed literatures and reliable websites. Sources for GP's income in Iran were Guideline of Family Physician Program and Referral System in Urban Areas, Version 02 and Guideline of Implementation of Family Physician Program and Health Insurance in Rural Areas, Version 13. The per capita income considered for each country was gross domestic product based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) according to International Monetary Fund statistics. Annual income of GPs in the United States ($98,000), Canada ($92,642), Australia ($80,532) and Japan ($71,688) were the highest and in Romania ($4,444), China ($5,675); India ($8,180) and Iran ($12,160) were the lowest. Considering the ratio of annual income of GPs to PPP, physicians in Japan (236%), Canada (224%), India (211%) and the United States (195%) had the highest and physicians in Romania (47%), Czech Republic (69%), China (75%) and Kuwait (96%) had the lowest ratio of income. In this respect, although GPs in India earned one of the lowest annual incomes, they were in one of the top countries according to the ratio of income to PPP. Irrational low incomes for physicians may result in decreased job satisfaction, long working hours, increased risk of medical errors or illegal earnings and consequently decrease in quality of health-care services provided to patients. GPs additional and illegal earnings in the countries with higher income are low and quality of services provided to patients is high. A rational and flexible payment system according to existing conditions can help physicians to achieve their rights in Iran and therefore increase quality of health-care services.