Earlier quoted context omitted.
I encourage you to talk to some doctors. No one makes $250k per year, except maybe a few surgery specialists (and maybe ER). Primary care doctors (the ones that where there actually is a shortage) can can easily start at under $100k and the max can be below $200k. And if you are a pediatrician or a pediatric specialist, expect to take a cut in pay relative to your adult colleagues.
Why would I solicit anecdotes, when there is data available? Median compensation for all physicians is above $200,000/yr for every region of the country.[1] The highest averge earning speciality is not surgery but radiology at $315,000. [2] Focusing on primary care doctors is a goalpost shift. Your original talking about the extensive opportunity costs for all doctors and specifically mentioned the additional time ne…
Median compensation for all physicians. I encourage you to look at the actual distributions, based on age of the doctor and specialty. Early doctors make very little, and primary care doctors (GP, family practice, pediatrians), make the least. Oh, and while they are in training (residency, fellowhips), they wouldn't quality in the median compensation calculation, because even though they are MDs and treat patients, they are still considered students/trainees, and they make very little (~40K residency, ~60K fellowship, depending on area of the country). Those are the specialties that are in need - hence the reason to focus on those.
Really, I don't know why you're arguing this so much...
The cost of health care is a very complicated topic, and not one that is conducive to this type of forum.
My source: me, my wife, and a bunch of our friends. I almost became an MD, but left med school to get a PhD. I left for a variety of reasons, but once factor was the math didn't add up. My wife is an MD/PhD (pediatrics with a specialty). And we know many other doctors - all young, the category I was focusing on, and some make a lot, and others make very little.
Your data model is too simplistic to get a full grasp of the situation.