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The article touches on this: "But when hospitals competed, they did so by... paying more for doctors..." "Singapore heavily regulates the number of physicians

• adventured 9y ago
  > What makes price controls for doctors wages different than failures with price controls in other industries? It's not different conceptually, there are numerous negative consequences for the market and the doctors. It's different in terms of what's morally tolerated on the basis that healthcare is now viewed, very widely, as a right. Even in the US that's increasingly becoming the public view, which is why the Republicans (with the Presidency + both houses of Congress) couldn't get close to fully removing the ACA (eg the protections around existing conditions is overwhelmingly popular even for the majority of Republican voters). If healthcare is a right, then the people working in healthcare are what exactly? You have a right to N healthcare, that must be provided by the labor of someone else. There are two common answers to that, based on what one believes ideologically: those workers are either economic slaves, or they're knowingly accepting a social contract of sorts by choosing to be in the field.
  • tim333 9y ago
    Price caps on most things produce shortages. Doctors on the other hand are generally not that money motivated - I doubt many would drop out of medical college because the salary was $80k rather than $120k say. Though there are limits - I know some people drop out of the UK NHS.