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.
Other countries allow you to go straight from high school to medical school, plus other countries have free schooling.
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.
https://students-residents.aamc.org/medical-school-admission...
But, honestly, good for them. I wish other white collar ICs understood the power of banding together to lobby for your professions interests.
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.
Well you should find out before arguing from your absolute.
And the AMA isn't the only organization representing physicians. Many of them aren't even members. It's not like a union or something.
Even today there is no legal quota limit on residencies. There's only a cap on slots funded by the federal government through Medicaid. Other organizations are free to fund as many slots as they want. If you have the means you could go to your local non-profit teaching hospital and donate money to expand their program.
Original claim: doctor salaries are part of the problem.
Substantiation: Doctors in the U.S. earn way more than doctors elsewhere. It logically follows that higher salaries lead to higher healthcare costs. For reference, the average doctor in the U.S. earns over $360K. In Germany, that number is around 85K euros.
Then you claimed that some doctors think this is a problem.
I responded by saying that the AMA lobbied to artificially restrict the supply of doctors. This is a well known fact. It’s literally in the introduction (with sources) on their Wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Medical_Association
> the AMA has frequently lobbied to restrict the supply of physicians, contributing to a doctor shortage in the United States.[10][11][12][13] The organization has also lobbied against allowing physician assistants and other health care providers to perform basic forms of health care. The organization has historically lobbied against various forms of government-run health insurance.[8]
So all that is left unsubstantiated is your claim that “a bunch of doctors do recognize the issue.” Ok, which ones? How widespread is this belief? Why is the AMA acting against these beliefs?
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.
Generally speaking the supply and demand curves taught in Econ 101 don't apply to healthcare.