And have you noticed how many Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners there are who are stepping in to treat you??? I see this at Mayo even though I have always had the doctor come in afterward.
PAs and NPs have no where the amount of training of a medical doctor. Nor can they do specializations like doctors but only get experience by working in a certain department. Yet they are being used more and more in medical practices and I have seen them assume responsibilities where they definitely should not because they totally lack the depth of knowledge. They are paid less than a doctor, but the institution can charge insurance the same amount (code the same) if they are "supervised" by a MD. My friend's daughter is a doctor and was very unhappy when they hired some PAs and said it was not realistic to expect she had the time to supervise them but was expected to sign off on what they did. The clinic finally decided to code visits at a lower amount and not require MDs to sign off on what the visit.
SO... PAs and NPs want more responsibility...so why not encourage them to complete MD training???? Why "dumb down" our medical system???? Time to give scholarships for medical training! They give tax breaks to companies to increase development in certain areas, and the shareholders end up very rich. How about making medical education very affordable and available to help everybody!