yes the AMA “the doctors union” deliberately keeps the number of seats in medical schools very low causing an artificial shortage with the accompanying high prices. The issue is not creating more surgeons which is a high skilled subset as I understand the shortage is primary care doctors. I would like to see each state establish 2 new medical schools enrolling students right out of high school and cranking out 100 call them PD’s for practical doctors each in five years. Doctors would be plentiful prices would come under control. Think of it most of us already are being seen by a similarly educated person in PA’s or ARNP. This would not interfere much with the current food chain in the medical industry and give average people much easier access to basic care.
PAs and ARNPs are supervised by MDs generally. Even if you don’t see the MD, they are held liable for the noctors ( not doctors) care. They sign off the charts after the noctors have seen the patient.. So, you cannot increase noctors without increasing the number of physicians, because they will not take on a huge noctor load due to liability and workload issues. Also, the number of seats in medical schools are low because it is very expensive and labor intensive to train a doctor. That is why they come out of medical school with huge debt. If you increase the providers too much, their exposure to different disease processes are very limited. I want to see a doctor who has seen it all, so he/she can better diagnose me. I think PAs and ARNPs are fine for very minor issues, but they dont get much training to be independent right out of school, and they rely on MDs to teach them. I see this everyday. They really dont know all that much without a lot of MD help.