Doctors resisting nationalisation

Doctors, or specifically General Practitioners, are resisting a Government move to set their fees for them. This would be de facto nationalisation, effectively turning all GPs into state employees.

There is a huge variability in what GPs charge, reflecting location, demographics etc. Trying to have the Government set one national price is lowest common denominator thinking.

Incidentially GPs income is now very modest compared to a couple of decades ago. Commerce graduates within a few years are earning far more than GPs who spend twice as long studying.

UPDATE: The RNZCGP survey has incomes for GPs. The average income is $93,000 with average hours being 1.2 FTEs. Thsi works out to $77,500 for a FTE. The median income of $96,000 compares to public hospital specialists of $137,500 (and much much more for private specialists).