The AMA doesn't control the number of medical student slots either. They have no regulatory or accreditation authority. Medical schools are free to add more students, and several entire new medical schools have opened in the past few years.
The immediate bottleneck really is in residency programs. Every year, some students graduate with an MD/DO degree but are unable to practice medicine because they don't get matched to a residency program.
Exactly: I want to see more/newer data on residency programs and placement rates per resident (MD, DO, IMG), because last I checked, residency spots (and the bottleneck created by limited Medicare funding, which I find interesting considering the profit created by residents) were the primary bottleneck; medical schools have every incentive to open new spots as quickly as humanly possible considering the ludicrous pricing they charge. We're firmly into 'money printer' territory for medical schools and their cost of operation.
https://www.deborahgutmanmd.com/blog/new-medical-schools-upd...
The immediate bottleneck really is in residency programs. Every year, some students graduate with an MD/DO degree but are unable to practice medicine because they don't get matched to a residency program.