[vernon99]

Isn't it the opposite of what you're saying? I always had an impression that the high cost is actually due to low supply of doctors and this low supply is due to overregulation driven by the doctor lobby. Where (if I remember correctly) there're limits on the number of new MDs education institutions produce, or a number of licenses, forgot what exactly.

The demand is inelastic, the supply totally is elastic in a normal situation, but it is made inelastic by regulations, restrictions, etc.

[nradov]

There is no limit on the number of MD degrees that accredited schools can grant. The immediate bottleneck on producing new doctors is funding for residency program slots. Every year, some students graduate with an MD but are unable to practice medicine because they don't get matched to a residency program (some do get matched the next year).

Most of the funding for residency programs comes from the federal government, specifically Medicare. (Other organizations are free to fund residency slots separately from Medicare.) Congress imposed a cap on that funding and hasn't significantly increased it in years. At one point the AMA lobbied for the cap but they have since reversed their position and now lobby for an increase.

https://savegme.org/

Licenses to practice medicine are granted by state medical boards. There's no limit on those as long as you meet the criteria.

[0_____0]

I think you could classify the shortage of doctors as being due to "poor regulation."

Some brief reading suggests that the supply of physicians is constrained by a cap on public funding residency slots lobbied for by the AMA.