Doctors: Someone Else Who Did it All By Themselves

Except for the inconvenient fact that the federal government covers about 90% of the cost of medical residencies:

So let me get this straight. Currently, the Federal government fund about 90% of the cost of training new doctors at a cost of $12 billion per year? The health care industry itself only picks up 10% of the cost?

I would love to know how this state of affairs got to where it is. I can't think of another major profession - other than those that are exclusively government professions (military, police, firemen, etc.) where the government pays such a huge amount of training costs for its key personnel. It's actually kind of mind-boggling.

Yet another case of Randian Übermenschen who simply picked themselves up by their own bootstraps, I guess.

H/t Atrios.