Yes, not enough doctors. Allow more doctors seems like a good partial solution to the elite overproduction problem.
The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
391–400 of 521 posts
Re: The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
We do not need all doctors to be uber doctors. We need a range of doctors, who range in price according to quality . That way for simple stuff, which anyone can get right, we go to a cheap, reasonable doctor. A similar example would be if we only had uber software engineers. Each one had to have a PhD. There were no cheap and okay developers who could do say web-sites but not write a programming language from scratch…
Well what we are learning is that we don’t need doctors for the simple stuff. The doctors cap honestly make sense. We have a surplus of generalists who still do not understand the body systematically, so the demand is not there
> We have a surplus of generalists who still do not understand the body systematically
How is this synonymous with not specializing?
Re: The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
> preferably working with development of new patient records systems. That field is quite a mess. There's a oligopoly of few large vendors with low quality products but high quality politics and sales. Although as a working physicians you're probably familiar at least with the results. Edit: Further discussion, including EHR system developers, here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39186252 Having been on the use…
EHR is truly a mess which is why I feel compelled, as a somewhat computer-skilled physician, to try to do something. There is a lot of potential to improve EHR but I think we have to start from scratch with a completely new way of thinking. It will be very costly but current solutions aren't working to help the physician, it just adds to the workload. The business models of EHR's I'm not that familiar with, I will re…
> It sounds like you have experience working with EHR development?
Not first hand, but I followed it quite closely when we as activists tried to prevent Finnish healthcare from getting an Epic based system (that turned out to be exactly the disaster we predicted).
Re: The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
Supply and demand. If you artificially cap the supply of doctors, then the doctors can ramp up their prices.
I'm not sure this really stands up in a UK context: https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/...
Like he said, supply and demand. You are still at the mercy of what the customer is willing to pay. The customer will not pay an infinite amount, even for healthcare services.
But it is undeniable that doctors are paid considerably more than most other jobs. This is why.
Re: The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect that, after some point, making the qualifications stricter actually drives away many of the best candidates.
I doubt it. They pay is high enough to attract more people than necessary. Most ultra high income jobs are the same.
Being a doctor is not a reliably ultra-high-income job, and many people don’t consider the slog of med school, an internship, a residency, and an eventual possible job at a hospital to be worth any amount of money.
Re: The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know about other countries but that’s absolutely the case for the US. The culprit is the AMA. > In the 20th century, the AMA has frequently lobbied to restrict the supply of physicians, contributing to a doctor shortage in the United States.[10][11][12] The organization has also lobbied against allowing physician assistants and other health care providers to perform basic forms of health care. The organizatio…
Milton Friedman discusses this in depth in his book Free to Choose (from the 1980s), for anyone who’s interested. Here we are 40 years later, problem still unsolved.
Wow.. amazing
Re: The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know, lower skilled doctors can be quite a pseudo science amplifier at worst. Sometimes it does feel like that no doctor is better lower skilled one, especially when self treatment (or more accurately, remote treatment) is getting better nowadays.
The problem is worse when there is a lack of actual doctors. It people can't see a doctor, or can't get decent care because doctors are overworked, they will go to the "pseudo doctors". "pseudo doctors" are usually much less regulated, because they don't really practice medicine, can't make prescriptions, are not covered by healthcare subsidies, etc... but they are available, and actually caring, because there is no…
No real doctor will be caring, because he has no time for that, the way the system is currently.
Re: The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a weird way to frame the problem. Why not increase the supply of doctors instead of reducing demand, whatever that means?
> Why not increase the supply of doctors instead of reducing demand, whatever that means? Because that's not sustainable. We can't throw unlimited human resources at health care. We have other issues and societal problems to focus on. We can only create so many doctors, because its expensive to lock down a smart and ambitious mind for so many years. Opening up healthcare for free for old people is like opening up an…
We can only create so many doctors, because its expensive to lock down a smart and ambitious mind for so many years
Re: The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
#399Something I've never quite understood is why, in the UK, we cap the number of medical students per year. I've known very bright people who aspired to be doctors but had their applications turned down only to go on to do phds and become scientists instead. I'd rather have twice as many doctors who work sensible hours rather than the status quo burn out. Looks like there are calls to change this. https://commonslibrary…
An associated problem is that bright people from rural or poor areas who are really passionate about being a doctor dont get the right grades to get in. Middle class kids in cities get in because its a good career but dont really like it that much and definitely dont want to work outside their city. My brother worked as a doctor until his thirties then quit, such a waste of training.
> An associated problem is that bright people from rural or poor areas who are really passionate about being a doctor dont get the right grades to get in.
This is unlikely to be true.
Re: The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
#400Something I've never quite understood is why, in the UK, we cap the number of medical students per year. I've known very bright people who aspired to be doctors but had their applications turned down only to go on to do phds and become scientists instead. I'd rather have twice as many doctors who work sensible hours rather than the status quo burn out. Looks like there are calls to change this. https://commonslibrary…
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