[nradov]

The costs of employing a resident are a lot more than just salary, but as I noted above the numbers are kind of fuzzy. Certainly most teaching hospitals can take on a few more residents but would mean less money for a new MRI machine or administrator salaries or charity care or nice landscaping or whatever. So it's a matter of priorities. For better or worse, most organizations are always going to do the minimum.

There are a few colleges now offering accelerated 6 year MD degrees so hopefully that option will become more common. A lot of primary care is also being picked up by physician assistants who have less education.