Yes. The 3 dominant features are (1) income and (2) ability, (3) alternative opportunities. Highly specialized doctors in the US get paid a lot because they hav

Yes. The 3 dominant features are (1) income and (2) ability, (3) alternative opportunities. Highly specialized doctors in the US get paid a lot because they have great alternatives because they are some of the smartest and most driven people alive. If we increase the number of training slots, that doesn't increase then number of qualified applicants to train because we are already at an equilibrium where marginal slots are unfilled in competitive fields. If we want to increase the number of qualified doctors we need to increase training slots AND increase pay for these docs. This will move some of the top talent pool from drug discovery/finance/law/software back to medicine. Will a law partner become a top surgeon ever? No. Will a highly capable 18 year old who is choosing their path be more likely to take the "highly compensated surgeon" route over the "highly compensated finance worker" route? Yes. Some of the best folks I know in the field have previously worked in business services/legal routes before settling on medicine relatively late in their career.