Why is American medicine so expensive? One reason is that doctors are forced to get bachelor’s degrees

See English Literature Isn’t Brain Surgery by Chris Pope and Tim Rice. Mr. Pope is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where Mr. Rice is the project manager for health policy. 

"In the U.S., aspiring physicians must spend four years in college before med school (another four years) and then residencies. Europeans can begin studying medicine immediately after high school—usually with a five- or six-year course.

While the share of Americans with postsecondary education exceeds the level in most European countries, the U.S. has a much smaller proportion of medical doctors graduating each year: 7.5 per 100,000 residents, compared with 11.3 in Germany, 12.8 in Britain, 9 in France, and 14.6 in the Netherlands. Only Canada, which has undergraduate requirements and high physician costs comparable to America’s, comes close, with 7.8 per 100,000. The U.S. faces a projected shortfall of between 42,600 and 121,300 physicians by 2030, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The status quo also does a disservice to young doctors, most of whom emerge from med school in debt (a median of $195,000 in 2017) and don’t begin to practice until they’re in their 30s. Why prolong the process, especially when 53% of newly enrolled med students say that before college they already had “definitely decided” to study medicine?"