There is little evidence to support the notion that healthcare workers' wage levels are responsible for the increasing cost of healthcare services in the United States, according to a new study published in Health Affairs.
Here are six key facts:
1. Researchers examined the question of whether salaries of health sector employees are excessive compared to the salaries of workers in other sectors.
2. About half of the spending in U.S. healthcare services, which totals more than $2 trillion, is composed of compensation to employees.
3. The study found that healthcare workers are paid only slightly more overall.
4. Physicians and nurses do respectively earn 50 percent and 40 percent more, on average, than workers with similar education and experience levels in other sectors.
5. However, hospital and nursing home workers and other nonprofessional healthcare employees get the same or less pay than workers in other sectors.
6. Thus, study authors noted that future efforts to reduce the growth rate of cost of health services "cannot be accommodated primarily through reductions in the pay of health-sector employees."