There should probably be more doctors, but it doesn't seem wise to lower the bar too far down.
Any entrepreneur should be able to open up a licensed medical school. Anyone who graduates should be able to get certified as an MD. This is how markets should work - not capping doctors on the hope that we get "better" ones.
Also, I have seen some awful doctors, so I'm not sure the system is working.
And to address your point about "awful doctors", people are also starting to realize the shortcomings of the previous system - filtering too heavily on test scores/grades, for example, meant that many medical schools churned out graduates with great test scores but relatively poor interpersonal skills (which is a travesty since you're dealing with people all day) for a while. Nothing is changing overnight, of course, so the jury is still out in how things will be in the next few decades.
Also we could quadruple the number of doctors we let in every year, and and we'd still only be letting in really smart hard working people.
And it's about choice, if you want to spend $400 to see the best of the best for 5 minutes go for it. But there are plenty of people who'd rather see a cheaper doctor for longer, even if there mcat scores weren't great or they got a B once in college.
Lastly a major chunk of what doctors do is pretty routine. Hey you have a soar throat, let's do a strep test, it's positive, here's an antibiotic. Or you say you have problems being happy, here take an ssri. Oh that one didn't work, let's try another one.
This is almost certainly true, and the incentives for physicians, medical schools, and banks are difficult to re-align.
That's a great point! That sums up my point much better than I did.
I bet the marginal student in terms of acceptance is more than likely great doctor material, and I bet it doesn't drop off sharply right past them.
No, you want people free to choose. If you want to go to the best and brightest, pay the best and brightest, and allow the others to get cost-effective care.
A good rule of thumb is: if you are using legalities to define economics, you are on the wrong path.
It works to deter not those who are more than capable, but those that cannot incur huge costs to get into medical school. That includes volunteer time, extracurriculars, going on "mission trips" in undergrad to volunteer to help in medical clinics abroad, very expensive application costs (if you aren't in the 0.1% academically you NEED to apply to a lot of schools), paying to travel for medical school interviews, etc. Not to mention the opportunity costs of doing these things instead of working a paying job.
It doesn't end there. I have twice this year hosted friends from out-of-state that came to my city to interview for fellowships. Even after completing a residency most (all?) hospitals and medical groups will not pay for your travel to interview with them. One of these friends told me he is paying ~10k in travel costs to interview across the country for a fellowship position...thankfully he has a trust fund. I believe he faced similar costs when applying for residency.
It is insane. And that's just one aspect of medical education that deters otherwise great people.
If Cuba can figure out how to output a huge number of successful physicians (to the point that they placed them in other countries) there's no reason America can't other than apathy.
Most of the time, I don't need Dr House. I need a warm body with a prescription pad. Occasionally a tailor, if I've sliced myself up.
And actually, because I have a high deductible plan....I'm not paying a simple copay, but rather the full bill.