The U.S. is almost unique in requiring extensive education and credentialing that is not required in most other countries. We have done this, I believe, to filter out applicants – because for a long time, we had an excess supply of young people.
Here’s that fertility rate chart again – those born in the late 50s/early 60s were a huge cohort all competing for education and jobs simultaneously. Excessive entry requirements and training requirements helped to throttle access to education.
An economist asks if this model is still the right model – noting that most countries have simplified education pathways – while the U.S. tends to require excessive levels of training that may have no benefits.
Moreover, it is quite a conflict of interest to let the members of the American Bar Association serve as law-school accreditors, determining entry to the profession and using expensive three-year law schools as a means of reducing the supply of lawyers, thus enhancing their own incomes. The extended period of legal study does nothing to make for more competent lawyers. (An aside: The recent attempts by the ABA’s accrediting arm to eliminate the mandatory LSAT for law-school admission is beyond reprehensible.)
Similarly, it’s questionable that one really needs four years of undergraduate training before entering medical school. Aside from the number of years required to formally earn an M.D. or D.O. degree, how much residency or interning experience is needed to develop a level of competency consistent with good health practices? I don’t know, but I suspect that some shortening of the current residency practices could happen with little impact on public health. That is the conclusion of Robert Orr and Anuska Jain in this paper written for the Niskanen Center. They write, “Apart from Canada, the United States is the only wealthy country requiring prospective doctors to earn a separate four-year bachelor’s degree prior to entering medical school. Establishing six-year, single-degree medical education programs … is therefore about as close to a free lunch for the U.S. health care system as you can get.”
I discussed “doctor training” in this post about “free healthcare” in other countries. The definition of “doctor” varies significantly by country, and many/most have fewer years of required training than in the U.S.
“A U.S. doctor has 8 years of training, a German doctor has 6 years of training, and in the U.K., a medic initially has 5 years of training. In many countries, physician candidates go on to more training, such that their training is similar to that in North America.”
Even with 8 years of training (4 years undergrad, 4 years med school), many U.S. physicians continue on to even more years of certification training.
In many countries, medical students enter their study program directly out of high school, and complete in 5 to 6 years and enter practice.
