Be Thankful, NJ! Jersey Doctors Could Do A Lot Better Elsewhere
So many are quick to complain about certain aspects of New Jersey but don't realize how good we have it until we move elsewhere. That's especially true in two specific fields here in the Garden State: education and medical care.
We're lucky to live in the New Jersey when it comes to the level of medical care we receive. Believe it or not, some of the best doctors are located either in the Garden State itself or within a reasonable traveling distance. One particular fact about doctors here in Jersey SHOCKED me to my core recently. You may find this hard to believe, but New Jersey isn't exactly the best place in the world to actually practice medicine.
In other words, there are plenty of other places here in the United States that treat their doctors better in terms of hospitals, pay, doctor-patient ratio, I could go on and on. A new survey by the folks over at WalletHub actually determine that New Jersey falls within the top 5 WORST states for doctors in all of America. As a matter of fact, it's the 4th worst in the entire country.
Isn't that nuts?
I, for one, had trouble believing it until I looked at the metrics by which they used to form the list. When it comes to practicing medicine here in New Jersey, the metrics were rated from 1-50, with 25 being the "average" range. Here's a quick look at how New Jersey measured up:
Practicing in New Jersey (1=Best, 25=Avg.):
- 42nd – Avg. Annual Wage of Physicians (Adjusted for Cost of Living)
- 37th – Avg. Monthly Starting Salary of Physicians (Adjusted for Cost of Living)
- 50th – Hospitals per Capita
- 25th – Insured Population Rate
- 29th – Projected % of Population Aged 65 & Older by 2030
- 40th – Projected Physicians per Capita by 2030
- 20th – Punitiveness of State Medical Board
- 43rd – Malpractice Award Payout Amount per Capita
- 39th – Annual Malpractice Liability Insurance Rate
What I took from this survey is how lucky we are here in the Garden State to have such great doctors practicing here. As you can see, some of them would be A LOT better off working somewhere else. Be thankful that so many here are so talented and intelligent.
Source: WalletHub.com