I always find it funny that doctors never think their huge salaries are part of the problem. Doctors in other countries earn way less than doctors here. That helps keep costs lower.
I'm all for lowering the cost of higher education but I'm skeptical that would bring down the cost of healthcare. Doctors who have long since paid off their student loans don't seem to be volunteering to take lower salaries; rather the opposite.
One approach could be to expand the availability of accelerated Baccalaureate-MD programs. Those cut education time by up to two years but are currently available at only a few schools.
Except in this case, the main group of doctors (the AMA) convinced congress to cap the number of residencies available to med school graduates explicitly to prevent the “over supply of physicians”.
Yes, the AMA did that but they have since reversed their position and have been lobbying Congress to increase the number of residency slots. So far Congress hasn't acted.
It sounds like they want to increase the cap, not remove it entirely. This is, again, likely self serving. If there aren’t enough anesthesiologist, for instance, surgeons can’t perform surgery.
But, honestly, good for them. I wish other white collar ICs understood the power of banding together to lobby for your professions interests.
Hmm I guess when I see a single, unified viewpoint codified into law by the singular professional association representing the entirety of doctors in America, I don’t really think “hmm l, those doctors really have varying viewpoints on this issue.”
I’m very skeptical that there are many doctors that support removing the supply cap. Of course, many doctors understand that the supply cap increases their salaries and thus the cost of care. But that’s different from actively supporting policies that will lower their salaries.
Or you should provide some evidence? What’s your source, “trust me bro?” It’s already a well established fact that the AMA lobbied congress to impose residency quotas, a position they continue to support. Therefore, the only logical conclusion is that the (likely vast) majority of doctors support this.
Rather than cutting salaries we should expand the ability earn an MD. But expanding medical school causes shrieks of hysterical anger from doctors. Same with importing foreign doctors. My pearls
A friend of mine is an opthalmic surgeon. He does complex corneal transplants and cataract surgery etc.
He had 12 years of training before he could so his first surgery. Once he invited me to observe a couple of operations that he did, which was super interesting. He told me afterwards that smart people with steady hands could probably be trained in 3 months to do the routine surgical work.
Bartenders used to also dabble in dentistry and medical care. So much nonsense involved between someone needing care, and being able to pay someone to implement the care.
Ultimately yes, but in healthcare, demand is fixed (to a large extent) and supply is tightly controlled as the education takes super long and hospitals only have limited residencies available.
Not really. Demand for healthcare is effectively infinite. Limiting the supply of doctors is one technique that governments use to control overall healthcare system costs. If patients have to wait months for a specialist appointment or elective surgery then that means fewer claims coming in.
Generally speaking the supply and demand curves taught in Econ 101 don't apply to healthcare.
Supply and demand curves need not apply here sounds like special pleading. I think we'd get a lot further treating healthcare like every other good/service then saying it's sui generis.
Other countries allow you to go straight from high school to medical school, plus other countries have free schooling.