My latest USA Today column is now up: Doctors are not overpaid. I explain why focusing on physician salaries won’t do much to dent health costs.

Also, as I wrote in a prior blog post, “Pay me like a French doctor. You know you want to,” any salary comparison with other countries also needs to consider their costs of medical education and medical malpractice:

Proponents who want to bring the salaries of U.S. doctors in line with those from Europe must also offer government-subsidized medical education and nationally regulated medical malpractice systems that many European nations enjoy …

Better yet, stop targeting physician salaries altogether. Let’s focus on other factors that have a much bigger impact on health costs: wasteful spending and administrative overhead.

Enjoy the column.