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I think he misses the point, a lot; and that this is rather unnecessary to begin with, at least in the USA. First question to ask in the USA is: "Why are ther

I think he misses the point, a lot; and that this is rather unnecessary to begin with, at least in the USA. First question to ask in the USA is: "Why are there quotas on medical doctor training?" If you create scarcity, what do you expect will happen? ISTR back in the 1990s the Clinton administration crowing about how they were helping NY State reduce the number of medical school admittances.

tptacek 17y ago
Even if we made it as easy as possible to get a medical degree, we wouldn't solve the scarcity problem. It's extremely expensive, in time and dollars, to become a doctor; it takes 10-12 years.
- yummyfajitas 17y ago
  So we would solve the scarcity problem 10-12 years in the future. Currently, for every person accepted by medical school, there are approximately 2 people with almost identical grades/scores who are rejected. This suggests we could roughly triple the supply of doctors if we put effort into training more.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    I wasn't suggesting that relaxing restrictions wouldn't help because it would take 10 years to see the effects. I was suggesting that there are other significant obstacles to recruiting people into the medical profession besides accreditation. Consider also that if you tripled the number of doctors, supply/demand says doctors will make less money, making the prospect of suffering through 10-12 years of training (and N years of low-wage work) less attractive. Again, medical care should be less lucrative for providers, and I agree that we should make it easier to become doctors. I just think that the long-term scalable solution for this problem has to involve more than just doctors. It only takes 4-6 years to become a nurse practitioner.
    - detst 17y ago
      Remove the requirement of a bachelor's degree for acceptance into medical school. Integrate anything they see as necessary into the medical program itself. That's 4 years of their life they can have back. I had a friend that went to a prestigious European medical school for a 6-year program right out of high school. Is he any less qualified as a doctor than someone that spent twice as long to get to the same point? Or compromise and make the students prove themselves for 2 years before being accepted into the med program. 8 years, they're done and "well rounded".
- jamesbritt 17y ago
  "It's extremely expensive, in time and dollars, to become a doctor; it takes 10-12 years." If there were a large increase in medical schools, wouldn't the competition drive the price down? It would also help if people could receive a greater range of medical treatment from trained professionals who were not full-blown doctors.

tptacek 17y ago

Even if we made it as easy as possible to get a medical degree, we wouldn't solve the scarcity problem. It's extremely expensive, in time and dollars, to become a doctor; it takes 10-12 years.

yummyfajitas 17y ago
So we would solve the scarcity problem 10-12 years in the future. Currently, for every person accepted by medical school, there are approximately 2 people with almost identical grades/scores who are rejected. This suggests we could roughly triple the supply of doctors if we put effort into training more.
- tptacek 17y ago
  I wasn't suggesting that relaxing restrictions wouldn't help because it would take 10 years to see the effects. I was suggesting that there are other significant obstacles to recruiting people into the medical profession besides accreditation. Consider also that if you tripled the number of doctors, supply/demand says doctors will make less money, making the prospect of suffering through 10-12 years of training (and N years of low-wage work) less attractive. Again, medical care should be less lucrative for providers, and I agree that we should make it easier to become doctors. I just think that the long-term scalable solution for this problem has to involve more than just doctors. It only takes 4-6 years to become a nurse practitioner.
  - detst 17y ago
    Remove the requirement of a bachelor's degree for acceptance into medical school. Integrate anything they see as necessary into the medical program itself. That's 4 years of their life they can have back. I had a friend that went to a prestigious European medical school for a 6-year program right out of high school. Is he any less qualified as a doctor than someone that spent twice as long to get to the same point? Or compromise and make the students prove themselves for 2 years before being accepted into the med program. 8 years, they're done and "well rounded".
jamesbritt 17y ago
"It's extremely expensive, in time and dollars, to become a doctor; it takes 10-12 years." If there were a large increase in medical schools, wouldn't the competition drive the price down? It would also help if people could receive a greater range of medical treatment from trained professionals who were not full-blown doctors.