[lavishlatern]

The medical pipeline doesn't have to be sensitive to federal funding either. There is nothing preventing residencies from being privately funded (besides the fact that most are currently publicly funded).

Medicare funds this out of a broad idea of it being a public good if there are more physicians. Note, there is no obligation that physicians work in public service after residency. This is in contrast to if you go to med school on a military scholarship (in which case, there is an obligation to serve).

In other words, if medicine weren't cartel, the government wouldn't need to pay doctors to train new doctors.