“Insult you”??? Asking you to get out of your freaking cartel and compete in a fair and free marketplace is insulting???
What the AMA has done is create a CARTEL. Plain and simple. Cartels are illegal in the USA, but yet the AMA endures.
If we had laws that only 200 people a year in Texas could become mechanics nevermind the fact how many people were actually qualified and willing then YES I would insult my mechanic because instead of charging me $65 an hour a free market mechanic charges, he would charge $650 an hour like the cartel doctors charge
Part of our health care issue is caused by the fake scarcity of doctors. You read that right. FAKE!!! The US has created a FAKE SHORTAGE of doctors. Anywhere in the world, where the free market system exists for training doctors, there is no shortage. Heck, even super qualified doctors from MODERN FIRST WORLD ENGLISH SPEAKING countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK and Ireland are NOT allowed to practice in the US without going through hoops and basically doing endless exams.
Fact is fact. Cartels are wrong and ONLY the consumer suffers. There is no inherent right to make $500K a year that doctors magically have. If in a free and fair market you make $500K GOOD FOR YOU. However, if you use a cartel to control the market then SCREW YOU
America is in the top half of countries for doctors per capita, and well above the average (2.3 per 1000, average 1.7 per 1000).
Heck, even super qualified doctors from MODERN FIRST WORLD ENGLISH SPEAKING countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK and Ireland are NOT allowed to practice in the US without going through hoops and basically doing endless exams.
Australia is only 5 positions above us in per-capita doctors (2.5 vs 2.3). New Zealand, Canada, and the UK are all BELOW US in doctors per capita. Only Ireland is significantly better, with 2.8 doctors per 1000 people.
Not that we don't have excessive regulation of doctors, just that those other countries don't have more doctors than we do.
Also, many professions do have licensing rules that limit how many people can serve in a profession. Yes, that often drives up costs. So I'm not disagreeing that we should not be limiting the number of people who can go to college to be doctors.
But I'm not ready to concede that our doctors are too-well trained, or that we could do better if we lowered the standards for doctors.
How in the hell did you get the idea that I am a doctor?
The closest I ever got to the medical profession is my driving past the local hospital on my way to work.
I care not for the AMA and any cartel is indeed wrong and against any sensible law.
I am talking about the individual doctor, the actual man/woman who takes care of YOU and ME and the rest of their patients.
I am talking about the two friends and three aquaintances who closed their practices because “It was no longer worth the aggravation.” Each had the financial ability to walk away in their late 50’s.
You are also right about HIGHLY SKILLED foreign doctors who cannot practice here. In my youth I knew a doctor who came to my city after surviving 4 years in a concentration camp in Poland. Brilliant, but somehow totally unable to master English enough to pass required exams. finally was allowed to specialize as a radiologist and just took X-rays. Doctors for 30 miles around sent their patients to him.
Funny, we are arguing via computer, but basically, I am in agreement with virtually everything you say....almost everything.
You continue to amaze....
ROFLOL!!!