Kamala Harris has pledged to increase taxes on the wealthy should she be elected president. Per the Kiplinger Newsletter, she would bring back the top 39.6% income tax rate for people making $400,000 or more, as well as hike the 3.8% net investment income surtax to 5% for these taxpayers. She also plans to increase the long-term capital gains tax rate for the wealthy.

Should Kamala Harris’s election and tax plans come to fruition, US physicians would take a major tax hit. Why? Because they’re rich. In fact, they’re the top earners in the US:

Further, more than 80% of physicians and dentists are married, often to other high-paid professionals , so their taxable household income is likely to be quite high indeed - well within the $400,000+ club. And I’d wager that a good chunk of physician earnings gets invested, meaning they’d also have to deal with higher taxes on capital gains.

Are US physicians overpaid? Yes, based on physician compensation in comparable countries:

No, based on their own opinions:

Source: Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2024: Bigger Checks, Yet Doctors Still See an Underpaid Profession.

So what do you think would happen if US physicians had to pay significantly higher taxes? I’d wager they’d figure out a way to charge even more for their services to make up the difference, thereby contributing to ever-higher healthcare spending in the US. I’ll close with a few quotes:

“Taking [the cost of medical school] into account, however, does not explain the more than $200 000 difference in compensation observed for physicians between [the US and comparable] countries…US health care spending was found to be higher than in other countries despite similar utilization patterns, suggesting that higher prices were the primary cause of high health care spending in the United States relative to other nations.” - Papanicolas, Woskie, and Jha, 2018

“We conclude that the higher fees, rather than factors such as higher practice costs, volume of services, or tuition expenses, were the main drivers of higher US healthcare spending.” - Laugesen and Glied, 2011

“Over 2023-32 average [growth in US health expenditures (5.6%) is projected to outpace that of average GDP growth (4.3%), resulting in an increase in the health spending share of GDP from 17.3 percent in 2022 to 19.7 percent in 2032.” - Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, June 2024 Fact Sheet

References:

Laugesen, Miriam J., and Sherry A. Glied. "Higher fees paid to US physicians drive higher spending for physician services compared to other countries." Health Affairs 30, no. 9 (2011): 1647-1656. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0204

Papanicolas I, Woskie LR, Jha AK. Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries. JAMA. 2018;319(10):1024–1039. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.1150