Regarding Elizabeth Palmberg's article on healthcare costs ("Sky High and Rising," June 2011): I've been under the impression that a lot of our high medical costs are related to the restricted number of doctors. Aren't there many more students wanting to get into medical school than are accepted? What if we increased the number of medical schools and graduated twice as many doctors -- wouldn't the market drive down what doctors could charge for their services? Would that have to mean lowering standards for doctors? I understand the high cost of a medical education and would favor subsidizing the cost in exchange for lower costs for doctors' services.
Isn't much of the research for new drugs done at government expense at the National Institutes of Health? Then drug companies take promising ideas to testing and production: another example of privatizing the profits and socializing the costs. I like the idea of eliminating exclusive patents on medicines.
Duane Beachey
Whitesburg, Kentucky
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