You forgot the sarcasm alert. If the pancake house waitress could be a doctor, she probably has already checked that out.
It’s not sarcasm. It’s basic economics. The medical school system in our country is not operating in sync with economic demand. They have limited the number of medical school slots far below what our country’s physician needs are. This limits the supply of doctors in the market thereby increasing the per unit demand for each one and therefore their price (salary). The green doctor right out of medical school, once their residency is done is guaranteed a pretty standard salary from the time they finish to the time they retire.
Because this salary is high enough it also puts them in a position to pay back exorbitant loans and so medical schools charge more than is economically necessary because they can get away with it and because it also serves as a barrier to entry.
Compare the medical school process to the process for getting an JD or an MBA and you’ll understand what I am talking about. We need to increase the number of medical school slots, increase the number of doctors and force them to actually compete with patients on the basis of service price and service quality rather than just opening an office and being guaranteed a full waiting room because there are so few doctors on the market.