Best Healthcare in the world

Great insights on wait times, time-spent with patient, doctor-patient ratio etc. here. The number of doctors per 100,000 chart is interesting and could explain partly why our costs are enormous. Here's another report I found from 2009 data. So, why are there so few doctors? Contrary to what you may hear, Tom Baker argues persuasively that folks aren't turned away from the profession because of malpractice lawsuits.

I haven't researched this but I've heard and seen (in grad school) that more American grads choose law or business over engineering or medicine. Are these disciplines perceived to be harder (at least in school)? The engineering shortfall (at least in IT) has been addressed by either bringing in folks from overseas or (more recently) outsourcing work. The shortfall in medicine is not being addressed similarly. Clearly outsourcing wouldn't work. And perhaps the medical lobby does not want to saturate the field with foreign doctors thereby diluting their income.  But something has to be done if the cost is high and the service does not justify it.