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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 27, 2025

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Everyone points fingers at a variety of things but physician salaries are under ten percent of spending. A massive drop in doctor salary only gets you 3-4 percent less expensive healthcare.

The AMA historically was engaged in what you are talking about but then spent multiple decades lobbying for increased role for midlevel providers which is a de facto supply increase. It's finally moving away from that in the last few years but has yet to find a new passion lol.

Historically the limiting factor on doctor production has been residency spots which are mostly funded by the government, however plenty of states and private corporations will fund those spots because the labor is dirt cheap and they actually make a ton of money.

Additionally ability to increase spots in the higher paying/lower number specialties is limited because you need enough work to adequately train and all kinds of things have caused problems with that (ex: a reduction in surgical frequency secondary to an increase in medical technology meaning not enough cases). Lower paying specialties like FM and Peds have more room to grow but nobody wants to do them because of the poor (relatively speaking) pay.