Doctors are useful. Supply and demand has traditionally been minuplated by the profession itself, via control of the number of students allowed into the nation's med schools. If justice were to be served some attorney general with sound ambition and the fortitude needed would sue the bastards for "contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade."
That, of course, is opinion. An opinion reawakened by this Strib local report.
The officer corps has bloat enough already, and they deal death and not healing. Priorities are stood on their head; and who makes such decisions?
Not you nor I. And saying the economy is rigged does not unrig it; but in seeing how badly it is rigged, lift every rock and examine all the critters that are a-crawl beneath each.
And yes, nurse practitioners can push pills as well as any M.D. relying on what the pharma sales rep comes by and touts as the next great new thing. Lab tests and pill pushing need not rest upon a band of commerce rigging folks who can put an M.D. behind their name after being "toughened for combat" by the Med School faculties. Surely skilled surgeons are apart from "primary care" which as this is written is being proven to be sufficiently handled by nurse practitioners, bless each and every one of them.
Reform need not have tunnel vision only for the bankers and Wall Street. Much needs attention, the M.D. cabal included.
UPDATE: A parallel Strib item, here. Figure that one out from the insurers' perspective. The private insurance paradigm is to take in as much cash as feasible and to be penurious in payouts since that's aiding the bottom line. If someone croaks while waiting for a bed and treatment, obviating expensive care, would the person's private-sector insurer cry over that outcome? It's a racket.