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It's not just the cost of training. In the US there's implicit expectation that becoming a doctor is a way to become wealthy, similar in earning potential to be
by m0zg 7y ago
It's not just the cost of training. In the US there's implicit expectation that becoming a doctor is a way to become wealthy, similar in earning potential to becoming a lawyer. There's no such expectation in most other countries which are often used in arguments for how socialized medicine "costs less". Their doctors make a fraction of what US doctors do, so of course it "costs less".
Right now in the US you'd be "socializing" the expectation that a doctor should make $300K+ a year, with a very weak upper bound. Which I'm not going to say real good ones shouldn't, but good ones, in my personal experience, are few and far between.
This is something we'd need to deal with before forcing taxpayers to pay for these inflated expectations at gunpoint, _if_ we decide to go the "single payer" route. ACA, ironically, did nothing at all to address the _affordability_ side of things. If I'm forced to give up a good chunk of my income for "free" healthcare, I'd be categorically not interested in paying for yet another beach house some surgeon wants to buy.
Just like all problems involving human motivations, this is a tough one to solve. It's so tough, in fact, that I think the most realistic path forward is gradual automation of everything that can be automated, though technological means, such that we only use doctors where a robot or a computer can't do the job. Someone needs to start another Theranos, but do it for real this time.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoThere better be a $300k+ payday at the end of a doctor’s training, otherwise I don’t see how the gauntlet they get put through is worth sacrificing their best years (20s and early 30s).
- fountainofage 7y agoThe thinking is also that the gauntlet is just plain wrong, so that would go away as well once their cartel (AMA) loses its power.
- m0zg 7y agoMaybe the gauntlet would be less severe if there wasn't such a massive pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow. Much of it is just hazing and weeding out of the "unworthy". But that's sort of orthogonal to the problem I'm discussing. The cost structure that enables "low cost" socialized medicine in other countries is just not there, and it's not going to be there in this country in the foreseeable future. Given this, all this talk about "medicare for all" etc, is just electoral pandering and nothing else. It's not doable without turning the whole system into a money black hole that's even worse than what we have now.
- ZhuanXia 7y agoIf you are trying to make free market arguments for doctors salaries come on. The doctors guild restricts supply through the state. No free market here.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoI’m saying with the current requirements of becoming a doctor, a very high pay is needed to incentivize smart people who have options to choose to become a doctor.