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Comment by kevin_thibedeau | Hacker News Reader

The AMA doesn't want an oversupply of competition.

False. The current physician shortage is primarily caused by insufficient federal funding for medical residencies. Every year there are doctors who graduate from medical school but are never allowed to practice medicine because they can't get matched to a residency program. The AMA has been lobbying Congress to increase the supply for years.

https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-fun...

There's other sources of money. Hospitals have like a trillion dollars of revenue at this point, I bet diverting some of that to training doctors would work out fine.

>Every year there are doctors who graduate from medical school but are never allowed to practice medicine because they can't get matched to a residency program.

Aren't 99% of unmatched, graduates of sketchy overseas medical schools?

Typically about 5% of medical school graduates don't get matched, although some of those do get in later.

https://www.ama-assn.org/residents-students/match/if-you-re-...

As for overseas medical schools, the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation is supposed to ensure they meet the same standards as domestic schools. I haven't seen any real evidence that they're sketchy.

https://sites.ed.gov/ncfmea/

Knowing a number of foreign medical grads, I'd have to agree that they are not, as a rule, skethcy.

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