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Comment by 0xy | Hacker News Reader

The UK's doctors and nurses are essentially slaves compared to their US counterparts. They make a quarter of the pay or less for equivalent work.

When your healthcare strategy is "just employ slaves so we can have free healthcare" of course people will die.

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Alternatively, I don't understand why we don't have more doctors in the US and drive down prices. I mean, I understand why the AMA wants that, but doctor-work doesn't seem that hard and I have no idea why they need to make mid-six figures.

I could be very wrong, of course, but it seems like most people I went to school with are capable of most doctor work.

If I'm not mistaken medical degrees in the US are postgraduate (in the UK it's undergraduate, albeit it takes more years than is typical), which increases the cost of training of a doctor (both tuition and "opportunity cost"). If you studied for 8+ years in university to become a doctor, the prospects of working as a "slave" on low salary is really unappealing.

Working as a doctor, even at a lower wage, isn't anything like being a slave. And yes, it probably means dropping the education requirements somewhat. People don't need to take that long after graduation to order some tests and prescribe some antibiotics.

> I understand why the AMA wants that

Did you leave a "not" out of this part?

Probably. I mean the AMA wants there to be few but very highly paid doctors.

To be fair, medical degrees in the UK are subsidized by the NHS, so they aren't paying extravagant student loans

Medical students pay the exact same way as all other university students. They pay via student finance loans for the first four years.

The NHS pays for the fifth and final year, as Student Fianance (England) will not cover the cost.

Medical students have the same student loans of £60k+ as any other student doing a four year degree

And the average US doctor has student loans of around £207,340, so the point stands. UK doctors do pay towards their education, but it’s heavily subsidised.

Compared to the student costs to other UK students. It is the exact same - a preferential subsidization would see medical students get a cheaper education within the UK.

It is hardly genuine comparing to the US system, which is the most expensive in the world.

What is the comparative cost to other European countries?

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