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Comment by hestipod | Hacker News Reader

Friend married a Russian cardiac surgeon, one with 20 years of experience, brilliant woman. She was not allowed to practice in the US without years of redoing residency and entry level exams and loads of money. She ended up changing careers as it was so much bother. Patients ended up losing out on a caring and bright provider.

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A DBA I worked with a couple jobs ago was a surgeon in China. He immigrated in the mid 1980s. After he was told he would have to redo his med school, he also decided it wasn't worth it and instead "learned computers".

That sucks. There's probably a situation in the future where doctors, or at least surgeons, can work remotely. Russian doctor marries US citizen, logs into VPN in Russia from USA living room, performs Surgery with Nintendo remote.

If there is already an over-supply of docs already in the country, I don't see how an influx of foreign doctors helps anyone.

That is a feature, not a bug.

Why would a well-paid, highly regulated profession allow people to come into their turf and undercut them?

Not saying this is a GOOD thing. Merely pointing out that the system is working as intended.

If the final user is losing, it's a bug.

At least in the IT world, there are lots of contractors sold on their certifications who end up being complete frauds. I'd like there to be some sort of way to prove your merit especially when you have people's lives in your hands.

In my experience being at the receiving end of many arrogant and unprofessional "doctors", having that medical license is far from proof of anything. If anything, the licensing requirement functions as little else than yet another barrier to competition, which ultimately harms the patients.

There is no "undercutting" in health care. Vast majority of services are already priced out by insurance companies, there just aren't enough people to do all of them.

>...there just aren't enough people to do all of them.

which factors into the economics of prices negotiated between providers and insurance companies.

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