Below is a sharp letter in today’s Wall Street Journal from a doctor who warns that the trend toward socializing the cost of medical education and of socializing the compensation earned by doctors will have bad consequences. It will deter good people from the medical profession.

Preventing Future Doctor Shortages

In response to the letters of July 25 responding to John Schnapp’s “Doctor Pay and Social Priorities” (op-ed, July 20), I suggest that the government not socialize the cost of medical education and begin to extract itself from the socialization of physician compensation. Who are these independent, free-thinking, talented physicians of the future who would commit their lives to the status of civil servant after college and trust their careers to the whims and largess of their political masters?

Physicians should have the same opportunity as the rest of society to achieve individual success and the accompanying rewards. The health, vitality and care of our citizens are at risk. Regrettably, this progressive socialization of doctors will result in more and better MBA applicants at the expense of fewer and lesser physician candidates.

Allan Dobzyniak, M.D.

Eastport, Mich.