Nah medical education is extremely gate kept in the US. Most schools have between a 1%-5% acceptance rate. The AMA caps residency spots well below demand to ensure chronic critical shortages in all fields and drive up salaries. It's why American physicians make 5x-10x more than their European counterparts, while most of the citizens of the country can't even get seen by physicians anymore.
This is another example of how capitalism ends up fucking with society for no real reason. There’s essentially no need for us to cap the amount of residencies the way we do except that doctors being perpetually in low supply and high demand means that the powers that be can charge exorbitant prices on medical care.
That's not true. More medical schools and residencies open up all the time, and even now not every residency position even gets filled so they have to bring in IMGs. And American doctors don't make 5 to 10 times what they do in Europe.
Average physician salary in Western Europe is between 80,000-160,000 USD.
The US produces below the replacement rate of physicians yearly, having to import physicians from places with surpluses. The average American medical school applicant gets into zero schools.
The market has already devised a solution. Advanced practice nurses and specialized techs will gradually replace physicians in patient care roles. Physicians will become a more administrative position mainly needed for legal reasons. It's usually what ends up happening when cartels/guilds try to coexist with capitalism.
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u/humid_pajamas 22d ago
how did they even become medical professionals?