How is this a thing when there are conditions that could likely get drastically worse in between the symptoms showing and the actual appointment date? And also people getting no assurance it’s not something life threatening causing extra anxiety and stress?
I have no expertise in economics or the medical industry so I’d appreciate any insights.
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I saw an interesting article on reddit a while back that talked about the shortage of doctors in general in the US.
Back in the 70s, they did some studies that showed that there was a doctor surplus and over the next couple decades it would get worse. In order to combat that, they decided to restrict medical school admissions.
The problem was, that study basically estimated the number of patients in the future by multiplying the current patient load by the estimated population growth. What it didn’t take into account was that in the decades since the 70s, access to medical care has expanded a lot. A lot of people that wouldn’t be able to afford medical care back then are now able to see a doctor. So the demand for doctors has increased far beyond what that old study predicted, and restricting the supply of doctors was actually a dumb fucking thing to do!
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