[jcrawfordor]

I don't think licensure is really that much of a barrier, though. One of the huge trends going on is that nurses are increasingly replacing doctors in primary care. In my market it's unusual to have an actual doctor as a primary care provider. These nurses just go through some additional training for a PA or NP license and it's still a great deal cheaper than medical school.

[bad_haircut72]

This happens to me (my PCM is a nurse) but funnily enough my costs haven't gone down. Those nurses still work under a qualified doc, who will never look at your file until youre nearly dead, but theyre still getting a cut believe you me.

[the_d3f4ult]

They’re not ‘getting a cut’ unless they directly own the clinic. What you’re seeing is a cost-cutting measure increasing the bottom line for whoever owns the clinic. Physicians are forced to agree to ‘supervise’ midlevels as a condition of their employment these days.

[bad_haircut72]

I replied to your other comment but wanted to reply here to say that this is also probably a fair point. I guess I dont really see doctors as employees taking orders (dont doctors mostly own their own practice?) since theyre so highly paid, but probably thats how being a software dev looks to others aswell.

Im curious if you think malpractice insurance is also a significant, unnecessary cost? What if we made it harder to sue doctors? On the flip side, malpractice is still a real problem - probably not one that will be fixed by removing medical licences :D just hoping you see this comment since I am genuinely interested in your answer

[Tostino]

In the last decade, private practice rates for doctors has dropped from ~60% to ~45%.

By me in FL, it's hard to find a doctor that actually has a private practice now. Most are corporate owned clinics where doctors are just employees.

[silexia]

The US only allows a specific number of people to enter medical training each year to be doctors. This is the reason we pay so much.