[UAConservative]

The proliferation of new schools is also a market response to a rare convergence of forces: a growing population; the aging of the health-conscious baby-boom generation; the impending retirement of, by some counts, as many as a third of current doctors,,,

Never doubt the invisible hand. The free market system always works.

[freethinker_for_freedom]

I’m all for the free market system, but we don’t let market forces determine the number of physicians who are practicing—obviously many more people would go to medical school if space were available. Instead of market forces, we let organizations like the AMA have an influential role in determining the number of doctors, since every medical school must be approved by the AMA to be certified. There are those who say that the AMA has a vested interest in keeping the supply of doctors low.

As a result, we have a situation where in my city of 500,000 people it takes a month to get in to see an orthopedic surgeon, and the city council must pay a neurologist $2,000 a night just to be available to take emergency calls.

[Chickensoup]

Spoke to a doctor yesterday about this subject This is not the long hand of the free market.

Guilds like the medical organizations have no free market.

The healthcare bill is requiring that more than fifty percent of med students be either minorities or foreign. The schools are ramping up to take them. There is, of course, monies involved.