4 ms·
If you ignore the massive subsidization by the federal government, then the market manages just dandy. Taxpayers spend north of $15B on graduate medical educat
by x0x0 10y ago
If you ignore the massive subsidization by the federal government, then the market manages just dandy. Taxpayers spend north of $15B on graduate medical education annually.
- refurb 10y agoWere there no neurosurgeons before those gov't subsidies were in place?
- chongli 10y agoGovernment subsidy of the arts and sciences is a practice that dates back to the ancient world in the form of patronage [1]. If you wanted to be ridiculously pedantic, as some people on the internet are known to be, you could argue that the neurosurgical procedure known as trepanation [2] dates back to at least 7000 years ago. However, the modern science of neurosurgery is far more recent so I do not think it is at all unfair to claim that gov't subsidy predates neurosurgery by a wide margin. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanning
- refurb 10y agoNeurosurgery (as we know it today) first came about in the early 1900's.[1] CMS, the gov't institution that funds residencies, was created in the 1930's (well, it predecessor was). And if we look outside of neurosurgery to general medical practice, we'll find that it was humming along quite nicely without any gov't support. [1]http://neurosurgery.ucsf.edu/index.php/about_us_history.html http://neurosurgery.ucsf.edu/index.php/about_us_history.html
- chongli 10y agoYou just provided a link to UCSF, a government-funded public university [1], to prove your point that the government didn't fund the development of neurosurgery? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California#Histo...
- refurb 10y agoJust because a government-funded institution creates a webpage describing the history of a subject, doesn't mean that government funded institution created that subject. If I link to a NHTSA website on the history of cars, are you going to argue the government invented cars?
- chongli 10y agoSo your argument is that government didn't come up with the original idea for neurology and therefore, what, exactly? What is your argument?
- x0x0 10y agoI think that, because at some point there was a doctor, therefore the free market will make doctors just fine. Ignoring that medicine is one of the least free markets in the US (and even less outside the US) as irrelevant. From education (college subsidies, loans), public financing of med schools, public financing of post med school education, etc. Not to mention who actually pays for all that medical treatment. Or just random free market magic argle bargle.
- refurb 10y agoI don't disagree that the US healthcare system is the exact opposite of a free market. But I do disagree that it would be impossible for a functioning healthcare system to exist without the gov't.
- chongli 10y agoI disagree. The free market is predicated on free individuals making free choices. If you contract a fatal, but curable disease there is no practical limit to the amount of money you'll pay for the cure. The fact that your very life depends on this treatment makes you a non-free person, rendering the free market dysfunctional.