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There are more than enough doctors. The problem is that most of them are specialists where the big bucks are. The shortage is in General Practitioners where the big bucks aren't. Simple human greed.
The market is bottlenecked at the medical school level. Even then your not going to underpay your best and brightest or you end up like the UK, importing doctors in with sub par educations.
The market isn't in educating doctors, it is in hiring them.
The US pays doctors far better than other nations, and should therefore be an attractive option for the most skilled doctors from other OECD nations. Who, on the average, get better results with less resources than the native ones.
Don't forget to blame the AMA and licensing for shutting down half the medical schools in America... to create a shortage and drive up physician fees.
More data here: http://www.city-data.com/forum/16107333-post22.html
When your medical schools are more worried about racial promotion vs. getting enough well trained doctors out then thats the start of the problem.
Interesting take on this issue.
But it's wrong.
I administered the MCAT for years. No one gets into med school without passing the MCAT.
Nice attempt at marginalizing minorities who meet the qualifications for school.
There are a finite number of seats for courses of study to be a medically trained professional.
That could be alleviated if there were more med schools, or by opening the market to doctors from other countries.
If the bill is found to be unconstitutional by the SC, the problem goes away, doesn't it, or at least allows more time for doctors to be created in this country.
There's a reason we have a shortage of physicians. And it has nothing to do with any federal, state or local health care laws. The path to practicing medicine is long, grueling, and extremely expensive. Most kids who leave HS intending to go into medicine don't have a handle on the years of intensive, all-consuming study that's required. Follow that by a few more years of incredibly intense residency work and the medical profession loses a lot of its luster.
For those who complete the climb to the summit of the private practice, they discover that they've become the targets of swarms of hungry lawyers looking for the slightest reason to launch legal attacks.
Oh, and then there's the $145,000+ in student loans to repay, too.
Between the drain that med school and residency has on personal life, malpractice BS and the burden of six figures of student loans, why not do something else. Most of the docs I know are pretty unhappy because they never see their families.
There's a reason we have a shortage of physicians. And it has nothing to do with any federal, state or local health care laws. The path to practicing medicine is long, grueling, and extremely expensive. Most kids who leave HS intending to go into medicine don't have a handle on the years of intensive, all-consuming study that's required. Follow that by a few more years of incredibly intense residency work and the medical profession loses a lot of its luster.
For those who complete the climb to the summit of the private practice, they discover that they've become the targets of swarms of hungry lawyers looking for the slightest reason to launch legal attacks.
Oh, and then there's the $145,000+ in student loans to repay, too.
If the bill is found to be unconstitutional by the SC, the problem goes away, doesn't it, or at least allows more time for doctors to be created in this country.
"The problem goes away." What problem would that be? No more sick people in the US?? Do you not see how ludicrous your post is?
There are more than enough doctors. The problem is that most of them are specialists where the big bucks are. The shortage is in General Practitioners where the big bucks aren't. Simple human greed.
Don't just paint docs as greedy. Its also trying to be financially responsible because of student loan costs. If you had to pay for the amount of student loans and interest that docs had to, I'm betting you'd go into the highest paying specialty you could find.
What if I said you had 3 grand a month in student loan payments, then another 3 grand a month in malpractice, before you could take home a single dollar for yourself or your family as a PCP? Would you want to do it when you could go into specialty and make a lot more.
Then also considering after the long years of residency why would you want to be on call? Much better to do something like dermatology or plastic surgery etc. Then you might be able to see your family every now and then.
Between the drain that med school and residency has on personal life, malpractice BS and the burden of six figures of student loans, why not do something else. Most of the docs I know are pretty unhappy because they never see their families.
This is very important.
Higher education is SO expensive, that most students are re-thinking 150k+ in student loan debt needed to get into the "prestige" positions in the US, particularly doctors, who have to delay their career in the first place, and THEN play catch up with their peers.
Why? When one can become an "investment banker" and enjoy a higher paycheck and every market holiday off?
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