The Top 40

Where will the med students who will then become the doctors come from, after we have fully and completely embraced National Health Care, bestowed upon us by those who know better than us, what is good for us?

Probably the same place they get them in Britain these days. Third world countries - the students will be given grants-in-aid and/or subsidized by Aunt Samantha (Uncle Sam having long since departed, to be replaced by a benevolent and all powerful Nanny).

They will also probably shorten med school from 4 years to 3. And reduce post-med school residency/training.

After all - why not?

20 years from today, the physician who gives you the little blue pain pill instead of approving you for (tightly rationed) Chemo for your prostate cancer, will be from Bangladesh. Or "Pahkeestahn," as the Won would say it. If you are very fortunate, he will spend a few extra moments commiserating with you, in his barely understandable broken English.

And then, please just die old man. The CO2 you are exhaling is a pollutant, and we really need that bed.

Thank you, and Gaia bless.

This was left recently as a comment on my blog post relevant to this topic:

For the past quarter-century, the American Medical Association and other industry groups have predicted a glut of doctors and worked to limit the number of new physicians. In 1994, the Journal of the American Medical Association predicted a surplus of 165,000 doctors by 2000.

"It didn't happen," says Harvard University medical professor David Blumenthal, author of a New England Journal of Medicinearticle on the doctor supply. "Physicians aren't driving taxis. In fact, we're all gainfully employed, earning good incomes, and new physicians are getting two, three or four job offers."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-03-02-doctor-shortage_x.htm

In his classic book Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman describes the American Medical Association (AMA) as the “strongest trade union in the United States” and documents the ways in which the AMA vigorously restricts competition. The Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the AMA approves both medical schools and hospitals. By restricting the number of approved medical schools and the number of applicants to those schools, the AMA limits the supply of physicians. In the same way that OPEC was able to quadruple the price of oil in the 1970s by restricting output, the AMA has increased their fees by restricting the supply of physicians.

http://wallstreetpit.com/5769-the-medical-cartel-why-are-md-salaries-so-high

Recently I needed to visit an ear/nose/throat doctor regarding ear troubles (that have thankfully cleared up but that's another matter). This particular physician spends several months per year volunteering his services in Poland. He told me that in Poland, patients begin lining up at the clinic before dawn, and he sees those patients SIX AT A TIME! There is no privacy in the examination room or during treatment, or while your medical history is being taken, there are so few doctors and so many patients that you feel lucky to be one of the six at a time who gets in for treatment. At the end of the day if you did not get in, tough luck. Come back tomorrow.

BTW the physician referenced above is at a clinic in Poland's capital city, Warsaw. Cannot imagine what the physician shortage looks like in the countryside.

""""" For the past quarter-century, the American Medical Association and other industry groups have predicted a glut of doctors and worked to limit the number of new physicians. """"

Thanks, Donald. I was about to make the point that some med schools (supposedly) were PAID to NOT graduate doctors, or something. You know, like soybeans? When I read that about a decade ago, I shook my head in disbelief. It was known at the time that 1) we are an aging country, and 2) our population was still growing. Where in Hell did these 'smart people' get such a stupid notion?

During the last New Deal, farmers were paid to burn their food crops to ashes...Even as Americans were lined up for soup.