| That's a common misconception quoted by the medical cartel (i.e. MDs), among other ones such as "we should pay doctors 3x the amount Europeans get[1] because they study and burn out so much", which is a self-imposed problem. Congress funding for residency slots is a small part of the puzzle. The larger issues is the medical cartel making it so expensive to go through residency in the first place through excessive requirements. Here's an incomplete list of anti-competitive behaviors of medical cartel that push healthcare prices up in the US: 1. Restricting scope of practice for NPs and other midlevels 2. Restricting new facilities through Certificates of Need 3. Restricting immigration of foreign medical professionals from OECD countries through NCFMEA 4. Increasing costs & duration of medical education 5. Restricting patient's ability to obtain their open record digitally with the purpose of switching providers, or taking control of their health (good luck getting your imaging data from Kaiser if you ever want to leave them and seek better alternatives) 6. Restricting OTC availability of simple drugs available without doctor middlemen in other OECD countries 7. Restricting development of AI systems through data BAAs 8. Restricting scope and speed of processing for de novo and breakthru devices that automate work performed by physicians None of these have a valid patient safety counter-argument because essentially in every case there is a precedent of safe operation in other OECD countries. Other honorable mentions include: 1. Fighting against surprise billing legislation 2. Fighting against government's ability to negotiate rates 3. Fighting against public option 4. Fighting against any mention of moving away from fee-for-service [1] https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2019-international-compen... |