In article . net,
Maxprop wrote:

"Frank Boettcher" wrote in message
...

Today the average doctor makes
approximately five times and much and many specialists make 15-20
times.

Where have you been, Frank? 15-20x? Hardly. Nearly all medical
reimbursement to physicians is now third party, and the rates of
reimbursement have been cut dramatically. Whereas a cardiologist could
reasonably presume to earn in excess of $500K per year in the mid-90s, today
they are lucky to clear $200K before taxes on average. Top-notch surgeons
used to earn well over a million per year, but work harder now, do more
surgeries and make half that or less. There are a few physicians in
private-pay only settings who still make the megabucks, but they are few and
far between.

In an industry that controls supply side by the number of
available seats in Medical schools which is way out of proportion to
the talent available.

Really? Have you chatted with emerging med school grads these days? My
recommendation to you is that you'd be well-advised to stay very healthy in
your later years. Entrusting your life to some of these new physicians
would seem riskier than skydiving. Medicine doesn't pay nearly as well as
it used to, ergo the top-notch students don't apply to the schools in the
percentage they used to. They now go into computer-related and finance
fields, where the money is. I was one of 69 optometry students chosen from
a field of nearly 1000 qualified applicants in 1980. Today the entering
class at my school is 60 students drawn from roughly 450 qualified
applicants. Med schools take about 250 students annually from a field of
roughly 1500 applicants, but of the 1250 who don't get into one school,
about 70% of them get into another school. You've implied that the supply
side of medical doctors is controlled ostensibly to keep earning high for
those in the profession. What would you propose? Would you take all of the
qualified applicants in order to spread the money around? And what would
the result of that move be? My best guess is that fewer and fewer qualified
applicants would show up each year. Money and prestige are and always have
been the primary driving force behind the interest in medicine, but are
becoming mitigated more and more each year.

Good. I don't know how much congruence there is between Australian
medicine and the USA, but having doctors who are primarily interested
in curing the sick and preventing sickness strikes me as much better
selection criteria than people who are interested in money & prestige.
I don't have any problem with them having all of the above, just the
order of importance.

Here, at least 1 med school screens candidates on a range of social
factors as well as straight exam performance. Can't see that the
results are noticeably worse.

With the exception of cutting edge research, it doesn't really take
that many brains to be a doctor, and the really bright ones get super
bored anyway if they can't do new interesting things all the time.

Do I know anything of what I'm talking about? Maybe not, but my wife is
a PhD from UNSW Medical school (ie, not a MD) and a department head at
one of Australia's biggest teaching hospitals. I have, unfortunately,
had 30+ years of moderately close social association with doctors and
fellow medical researcher types. They were/are no brighter overall,
than my colleagues in other R&D fields, but God, most *think* they are.

BTW, it's harder to get into vet school than medicine here in Oz. Less
places. Exam score (TER - equiv to your SAT most likely) is as high or
higher for vet as medicine. It's just a rationing mechanism, not a
determinant of needed ability.

PDW