You are both correct. Back in the 80s and 90s, it was projected that there would be a physician surplus about 10 to 20 years down the road, so the AMA advocate

You are both correct. Back in the 80s and 90s, it was projected that there would be a physician surplus about 10 to 20 years down the road, so the AMA advocated cutting the number of residency positions [1, 2]. But those predictions didn't bear out, and in recent years (about the past 10 years), they have advocated increasing the number of positions [1, 3] In my opinion, a lot of the talk about artificial physician scarcity is BS. We have more physicians per capita than the UK, Australia, or New Zealand, but fewer than most EU countries. So we are roughly in the middle of the pack for developed nations. The problem is not a lack of physicians, but the fact that the US has a much larger rural area than most other nations and that you need a certain density of physicians in those areas. But you can't fix that simply by training more physicians -- you train more, and they'll predominately move to the cities too for the same factors. [1] https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/03/15/ama-scope-of-practice-lobbying/ https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/03/15/ama-scope... [2] https://www.openhealthpolicy.com/p/medical-residency-slots-congress https://www.openhealthpolicy.com/p/medical-residency-slots-c... [3] https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-fund-graduate-medical-education-address-physician-shortages https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-fun...