[luminen]

Heartbreaking pieces like this do make me wonder... what is the better way to approach healthcare? For both doctors and patients, what would need to change? Is it like this everywhere, or does the US have a unique problem?

I heard a theory once that there is an artificially high barrier for who can become a doctor, and lowering that barrier by allowing doctors to specialize early on/not spend as much time studying fields they won't work in, we would have a higher supply of medical staff. As a layperson, this makes sense to me, but I also don't know what I don't know.

I have a lot of respect for anyone who works in healthcare.

[astura]

There's already around 10,000 medical doctors that don't match with a residency program so they can't practice medicine. These are qualified MDs who graduated from medical school who are ready, willing, and able to work but they are told "no."

Expanding residency to cover all qualified MDs would be a great first step.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/health/medical-school-res...

[saulpw]

A lot of it is the privatization and therefore optimization of healthcare. Why does the hospital only employ one doctor? Yes, maybe they have the headcount and it's an actual shortage of doctors, but I'd guess that the admins have reduced headcount and are trying to be cost-efficient. (This is why nurses are perpetually understaffed; either they're actively trying to keep headcount down, or they're underpaying so the headcount stays open.) Why do they need tonsillectomies to take 14 minutes? Again, trying to "optimize" healthcare.