“The average health and care worker main applicant will pay £54,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits. Care workers are net negative (-£36,000) while higher-skilled professionals are net positive.”
Is a good way to understand this that the average doctor will be net positive whilst the care/support worker will be negative?
And that the doctor is more net positive than the care worker is net negative that’s why the group as a whole is net positive?
The Philippines is the classic example for supply expansion (though for nurses, not doctors). I'm not aware of any well-identified studies that try to isolate deaths per doctor migrated, though I do try to benchmark it a bit in the original post: https://www.laurenpolicy.com/p/migration-of-doctors-and-nurses.
As I note in the footnote (and somewhat in the original post), though, I also don't think it's realistic to try to keep doctors from migrating. (Among other things, some LICs don't have the ability to do particular kinds of training - for instance, if you wish to be an anesthesiologist in Malawi, you *have* to move to South Africa for additional training.)
I think physicians are somewhat of a red herring in the context of LMICs, and especially LICs, because they're so rare! The US has ~36 doctors per 10k people; many LICs hover around 1-3. The vast majority of medical care is done by nurses and CHWs.
Dare to imagine a world where supply of healthcare workers is allowed to expand to meet demand
“The average health and care worker main applicant will pay £54,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits. Care workers are net negative (-£36,000) while higher-skilled professionals are net positive.”
Is a good way to understand this that the average doctor will be net positive whilst the care/support worker will be negative?
And that the doctor is more net positive than the care worker is net negative that’s why the group as a whole is net positive?
Am I understanding correctly?
Yes, exactly.
The Philippines is the classic example for supply expansion (though for nurses, not doctors). I'm not aware of any well-identified studies that try to isolate deaths per doctor migrated, though I do try to benchmark it a bit in the original post: https://www.laurenpolicy.com/p/migration-of-doctors-and-nurses.
As I note in the footnote (and somewhat in the original post), though, I also don't think it's realistic to try to keep doctors from migrating. (Among other things, some LICs don't have the ability to do particular kinds of training - for instance, if you wish to be an anesthesiologist in Malawi, you *have* to move to South Africa for additional training.)
I think physicians are somewhat of a red herring in the context of LMICs, and especially LICs, because they're so rare! The US has ~36 doctors per 10k people; many LICs hover around 1-3. The vast majority of medical care is done by nurses and CHWs.