One is you need a medical license to practice. To get a license, you need to be a graduate of an approved medical school. Slots in medical school are controlled by the AMA, which has a strong interest in limiting the number of doctors being minted, to keep doctor fees high.

That's just one.

Part of the reason behind restrained increases to med school spots is because traditionally they tried to get very close to full placement to residencies. In recent years, med school attendance has grown much faster than residencies, and that would be a very terrible position to be in to go $400k+ in debt and pass med school to only get stuck when you don't place into a residency the first round. https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/us-medical-school-enrollm...

EDIT: There are also separate osteopathic graduate schools and foreign med schools (Caribbean) that aren't limited by the AMA and still funnel thru the same match program.

Sounds like a chicken-and-egg problem. Which came first - the number of AMA slots, or the number of residency openings that matches it?

I know a trained foreign surgeon who switched to law after immigrating because of this red tape.

> I know a trained foreign surgeon who switched to law after immigrating because of this red tape.

I had a few of my undergrad bio and chem labs with a Vietnamese doctor who came to the US, I always tried to be in his group whenever possible because he had the most insight into the Industry as a result of his transition.

Apparently, because he was educated and practiced in Vietnam he was forced to have to repeat the entire process to enroll into Medical school. I'm not sure if was on loans or doing it on his own, but he must of have been determined to make it happen, because I'd probably do the same as your colleague if forced to do it all again.

He was an older guy, I was 18 or 19 so anything over 25 was 'old' to me but I think he was in his 30s while we were in our 2nd year courses.

With all of the polemics surrounding COVID19, I think the least we should do is take away the power of the AMA-like Institution to determine how many medical students can be enrolled into any program and make any necessary accommodations to ensure it happens.

Making the current medical staff do the equivalent of an understaffed, under supplied death march has to make reason prevail regardless of our stance.

Private and Public medicine is an issue to come back to, but being short staffed in a pandemic is suicidal--Italy recalling retired medical staff was alarming, but also highlighting that a Public Medical system is not yielding the panacea many suggest, either.

And for anyone asking for a source on the AMA's practices look at his, I remember reading this in 2005 as I was in school, and being schooled and trained as if I wanted to take MCAT because of the looming shortages caused by retiring boomers, even though I had no interest in Medicine:

https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-03-02-docto...

Another source:

"Competition and Monopoly in Medical Care" by Frech

https://www.amazon.com/Competition-Monopoly-Medical-Care-Fre...

The ones that let them not tell you how much they will charge you for a service until after they provide it, and then still demand payment (and have the government enforce that demand)?

(I'm pretty sure that's not what the person you were replying to is going for - but it is a very problematic piece of the regulatory environment which is unique to hospitals)

The certificate of need is one regularly mentioned.

The attachment of medical insurance to employment is another.

If you don't already know at least a few of these, you're probably a student or not interested.

Healthcare is probably the most regulated industry in the country.

Nobody knows all the regulations, and asking for a list seems a bit clueless.

If you're going to claim specific problems are caused by regulations is not too much to ask which specific regulations cause specific problems.

What's clueless is to use the word "regulations" like it's some incantation.

Healthcare is heavily regulated because medical care is not usually something you can restitute after the fact. If you sell me a defective widget my life doesn't depend on I can get my money back or sue you to get it back. If a doctor sticks a defective medical widget in my body and I die, I can't really do much about it afterwards.

I'd prefer that doctor's certifications have some sort of regulatory oversight. I'd also like medical widgets to be regulated so there's stringent QA and manufacturing process qualifications.