who will be wearing that stethoscope in the future?

An excellent article over at American Thinker about how difficult and expensive it is to become a doctor.

This was my comment:

An acquaintance was lauding the passage of Obamacare, "If doctors don't like getting paid less then they can find something else to do. My husband is a lawyer and he has 6 years of post-graduate training and we are barely making ends meet. Why should doctors get paid so much?"

I toted it up in my head that my husband has spent 14 years in post-graduate training and we are now facing what we can do if he can't find a job in medicine (after military retirement). I just can't fathom how people can begrudge someone a professional living when they have studied, trained, and worked for years to specialize in some branch of medicine that most people can't even spell. Can a lawyer, garbage man, or teacher replace your heart? Can a union auto worker diagnose your child with one of the myriad of types of lymphoma? Do you want a congressman standing there in scrubs if your husband gets shot at the mini-mart by a robber?

If we expect competence and expert skill then we must be prepared to pay for it. Right now there are fewer people going into medicine than ever before, many of the smart ones see the writing on the wall and are turning to some other way of pursing the American Dream. Medicine is no longer the route to a good life. It is instead the path to huge debt, crushing working hours, and the opportunity to be sued and lose everything at any moment.