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Comment by EGreg | Hacker News Reader

And yet people like Ben Shapiro continue to insist that it is single payer that will lead to less doctors...

If doctors collectivize, then shouldn’t patients?

I think it'd be best if we removed the power of the AMA; allowed the ability to fast track foreign medical staff (doctors, nurses, specialists).

Allowed medical schools to control their curriculum more, allow new ones, change the residency system.

One simple change would be to create a 6 year BS/MD degree that students could start directly from high school -- many other countries do this.

Single payer in the UK has already led to doctor shortages, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

There's many ways to get to a shortage, cartels and single payer are but two.

It's similarly capped in the UK. Upper middle class always knows how to protect their wages, only programmers want voluntarily more people competing for their wages. It's so welcoming field. Also it costs tons, can't compare it with America but compared to other fields. Hence they import doctors when there are shortages.

> Single payer in the UK has already led to doctor shortages

Source? The only news i've read of shortages are Brexit related.

There have been “shortages” of doctors and nurses forever, the usual newspapers were panicking about it in the 80s (source: was there, read them). Probably someone will be along in a minute to say they remember it from the 60s too!

Fun fact: the doctors were the biggest obstacle to the foundation of the NHS and they disappear into private practice at the first opportunity.

That's a lot of talk. How many people in the UK don't have access to medical care due to, say shortages vs how many in the US die every year b/c they cannot afford care?

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