Yup, this is basically the best starting point. It is just a different kind of monopoly, which also often gives the illusion of achieving an elite, illustrious lifestyle when the reality is that many physicians start in serious debt.
There should continue to be high standards on doctors. We’d be better off giving doctors with degrees from the top 50 colleges in the EU and UK a license to practice here. Today they can’t and would need to redo years of school here.
I don't get any sense that the limits on slots actually keep the standard of doctors high. Rather, it makes getting into the profession a lottery for otherwise perfect students. Better to maintain the standards by maintaining the standards of the process (i.e. keep med school and qualifying exams difficult) than to arbitrarily limiting how many people you allow into the funnel.
What certainly degrades the standard of care is the current situation, where issues that should be treated by well-trained and well-rested doctors are instead shunted off to overworked nurses or not treated at all.
Sure, do that too if possible. But importing doctors from the EU and UK, and Canada means we don't have to spend resources training them - those countries do. And then we brain drain them to the superior place for them to earn like we do for engineers from India and China - and doctors for that matter who are willing to do more school here to get licensed.
The EU and UK, and Canada have created an artificial market that underpays their medical professionals. For instance, in Germany or the UK the typical physician salary is less than half that of an American doctor. Hell, entry level software engineers in America make more than a doctor in Germany!
Clearly the margin here is the USA's opportunity to outcompete them for the talent. We already take many of their best engineers, why not their doctors too?
I'm pretty sure these megahospitals would enjoy that glut of workforce. You should probably also want to encourage the return to private practices as much as is possible.
So.. school slots.. and actual cash investments in new business.
