Though they earn salaries most recession-battered Americans would kill for, primary care physicians often seem to have grasped the short straw in American medicine.

At under $200,000, primary care doctors typically earn less than half of some of their specialist counterparts, such as cardiologists who earn an average of $442,000. Add to that long hours, hectic work schedules, reimbursement hassles and loads of paperwork, and it’s not hard to understand why fewer and fewer med students want to enter primary care.