<p>"How come you don't say anything about againg baby boomers? If there's a large aging population that will require more doctors, and prospective doctors aren't going to med school because the field isn't what it used to be... won't that create for a bump in salary for the comparatively few doctors that we will have?"</p>
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<li><p>we don't have a doctor shortage. We will not have one as baby boomers age. We train a lot, and we can import (sorry, permit immigration of, and licensure of,) more if we need them.</p></li>
<li><p>The whole reason for my negativism on health care is because baby boomers are aging and ramping up their demand for medical services. We just cannot afford to provide the same kinds of services to such an expanding co-hort as we do now to the elderly. Something has to give. Hence my prediction of the health care squeeze.</p></li>
<li><p>note that I did not say students would not go on to medical school. They will. But a different group will apply, and probably in fewer numbers. Already it is less competitive to get into med school than a few years ago. Medicine will continue to be a solid upper middle class career, just not as high income as in past years, with different working conditions that many will find less attractive. A few will do spectacularly well, as others have pointed out, but their numbers will be limited by the number of folks that will pay out of their own pockets for vanity. And this is the area where pure competition will ultimately drive prices down. Who offers the best price, financing, convenient shopping (oops, meant services) will get the business.</p></li>
<li><p>The reason you don't hear much about the health care squeeze is political. While we diddle with social security reform, the challenges of which are modest (just raise the retirement age a few more years, to reflect the longer life spans that created the gap in the first place, and the problem goes away), we ignore the looming train wreck of medicare. Totally ignore it. Strange, unless you view the discussion in purely political terms.</p></li>
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