2 ms·
> Without reforms to medical school and medical residency programs, healthcare might never be affordable. That's important, true. But that's not the only thing
by Chathamization 9y ago
> Without reforms to medical school and medical residency programs, healthcare might never be affordable.
That's important, true. But that's not the only thing that would increase the amount of healthcare available to people. Dean Baker, for example, makes the important point that we could greatly increase the supply of doctors simply by allowing qualified foreign doctors to be certified in the U.S.[1] Lower class workers in industries like manufacturing have had to compete with foreign workers because of free trade, but upper class workers benefit from extreme protectionism that shuts out foreign competition. Protectionism is also why drug prices are so high; if people were allowed to import drugs from places like Canada, the cost would be substantially cheaper.
[1] http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/more-of-free-trade-in-doctors-response-to-simon-lester http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/more-of-free-trade-in-d...
- rainbowmverse 9y agoDoctors saw what happened when every factory worker in the US was forced to compete with every factory worker in North America after NAFTA, and later the world. Unlike factory workers, no one's spent decades dismantling doctor unions and organizations, and they actually have the money and influence to resist attempts to break protectionist barriers. This just isn't going to happen. Rapid, careless globalization was an interesting experiment, but it's left a lot of people with no hope for the future. Do we really want to repeat it?
- saint_fiasco 9y agoIt worked, didn't it? The price of most manufactured things went way down while the price of healthcare keeps going up. Besides, doctors are service workers. It's not like their jobs will be outsourced or people will start traveling to India to visit a cheaper doctor.