> Doctors are part of a guild. They artificially limit the number of doctors available by capping the number of medical schools, which also allows the existing schools to crank costs to astronomical levels
Your thesis is that a cabal operated by doctors is limiting more doctors from getting acceptance into med school as well as intentionally preventing more medical schools from opening, with the goal of inflating their student loans to such astronomical levels so they can have the privilege of graduating with ridiculous debt loads they'll be lucky to pay off by the time they're 50 years old? That's.... fascinating.
> One thing that would help is letting non-MD’s, such as nurses or physicians assistants, do more “doctor” things.
They do, are you in the USA? It's actually quite challenging to see an MD without direct pay or concierge, or without seeing a specialist (in which case be prepared to wait 2-5 months, depending on their specialty). When was the last time you went to a primary care office, urgent care, or similar clinic in the USA, and had a visit with an actual doctor (MD) and not a PA, NP, RN, or similar non-MD? Doctors are so rationed in much of the USA that many obstetric or surgical followups are handled entirely by a completely unrelated RN or PA instead of the very doctor who performed the actual procedure on that patient. And the boomers haven't even retired and reached medicare age yet, imagine what the doctor shortage will look like in another 5, 10, 15 years.
> Doctors are part of a guild. They artificially limit the number of doctors available by capping the number of medical schools, which also allows the existing schools to crank costs to astronomical levels
Your thesis is that a cabal operated by doctors is limiting more doctors from getting acceptance into med school as well as intentionally preventing more medical schools from opening, with the goal of inflating their student loans to such astronomical levels so they can have the privilege of graduating with ridiculous debt loads they'll be lucky to pay off by the time they're 50 years old? That's.... fascinating.
> One thing that would help is letting non-MD’s, such as nurses or physicians assistants, do more “doctor” things.
They do, are you in the USA? It's actually quite challenging to see an MD without direct pay or concierge, or without seeing a specialist (in which case be prepared to wait 2-5 months, depending on their specialty). When was the last time you went to a primary care office, urgent care, or similar clinic in the USA, and had a visit with an actual doctor (MD) and not a PA, NP, RN, or similar non-MD? Doctors are so rationed in much of the USA that many obstetric or surgical followups are handled entirely by a completely unrelated RN or PA instead of the very doctor who performed the actual procedure on that patient. And the boomers haven't even retired and reached medicare age yet, imagine what the doctor shortage will look like in another 5, 10, 15 years.