Comments on Free Medical Schools

Today (Monday June 6) in the NY Times letters section there are a number of letters regarding the Op-Ed on Free Medical Schools by Bach and Kocher that was the subject of my blog yesterday. They all disagree with them. This is fine; what is surprising is that the Times apparently got no articulate supportive letters, or they probably would have published them.
Comments included the impact of lifestyle, money made after entering the profession (these were the main ones by the generalists, both internists) prestige, the mastery of a body of knowledge (predictably from the subspecialist writers).
I stand by my comments; free medical schools would help get folks into primary care. The other issues, particularly the shockingly inequitable reimbursement for practicing physicians, absolutely need to be addressed. I have talked about the myth of "body of knowledge" or complexity, and lifestyle is a big challenge -- but it is clearly wrong that a subspecialist should have a "better" (ie, less work) lifestyle for more money!