US Doctor Shortage

We have a shortage of doctors because the government artificially limits the number of residency spots which are required to become a doctor. Double the number of residency slots and med school spots will follow. Even if you halve doctor salaries I guarantee you we will have twice as many new doctors per year. The cost is not even close to what is stopping people from becoming doctors.

No, the issues is that the AMA convinced congress to limit the number of residencies available, which acts as a hard cap on the supply of doctors.

This is a problem in the US: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/4561/does-the-a...

I hate to make this a common refrain, but I make this same comment every time I see a comment like yours:The supply of doctors is not restricted by the AMA. The supply of doctors is determined by the number of residency spots available to new graduates; that number is entirely determined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). Thanks to the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Graduate Medical Education (GME) was dramatically slowed due to decreases in Medicare funding of residency positions.

This is oft-repeated truism, but what evidence do you have for this?Here are some facts:- Ultimately, the main chokepoint for the number of trained physicians is the number of residency spots. You can cut the price of med school to $0, you'll eventually end up with minimally more fully trained doctors because they need a residency spot.- Residency spots are paid for by the federal government. Congress controls the number of available spots. Medical professional bodies do not determ

It's a gatekeeping problem. Doctors don't want more doctors because it dilutes their own value, so medical school and residency spots are kept artificially limited.

The AMA specifically restricts residency spots. They cry about medicare funding, but it is all about keeping the supply of doctors artificially low. Unlike tech, there is no free market in medicine, which is why 20% of the national gdp is consumed on healthcare while doctors drive away in BMWs to the bank

There are plenty of first-rate medical schools in the US, it's very possible to increase the supply of qualified doctors to re-balance. Yes it will probably mean a similar scenario where doctors are paid somewhat less than they have been previously, but hey, look how bad engineering has gotten these past 20-something years relative to where it once was as a comparable profession to medicine.

> Doctors have prevented this by setting strict limits on how many new doctors can be qualified at the national levelIt's a bit more complicated than this. The bottleneck to becoming a doctor is residency, there are currently less spots than med school graduates. Every single residency loses money, so they're supported by the federal government. Congress could increase residency funding and more residencies would be created, and in fact the AMA consistently lobbies for that, but

The AMA isn't limiting the supply of doctors. The actual limit is in the number of residency program slots funded by the US Federal government. If you actually want to increase the supply of doctors then lobby Congress for higher residency funding.https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/