Yes - but they start accumulating wealth in their early 20s. That gives them at 10+ year head start on the average physician who finishes paying off their debts at ~35.
Software engineers aren't $200k+ in debt at 32 either.
If you are an average salaried software engineer, you can accumulate more wealth than a doctor if you invest at recommended rates. The break even point is somewhere around 60-65 years of age.
It's more difficult to gain admission to veterinarian school than medical school (in America).
Veterinarians pay about the same for their schooling (but they don't really have residencies) and vets make ~70k-80k/yr.
If we think of a job's salary as a function of the talents used by the job and the cost of admission to the job, it's unclear why doctors and vets should earn substantially different amounts of money.
But I agree that it's easier to accumulate wealth as a non-doctor than a doctor. Just treat the first couple years of your career like medical school and it shouldn't be too hard to crack 6 figures - if you live modestly outside a megaopolis, you can save 40k/yr and get a six figure headstart over a doctor.
Fact check: False. That figure is comparing the total number of applicants to the match with (first year) residency spots. But the total number of applicants to the match is not the same things as students accepted to (U.S.) medical schools. Foreign medical grads are dying to get trained in the States.
If you read on in your link, you'll see that "[t]he PGY-1 match rate for U.S. seniors was 94.3 percent", while the match rate for non-U.S. medical school graduates is slightly above 50%.
Again from your link:
"This year, 35,969 active applicants vied for 28,849 first-year and
2,908 second-year (including physician (R)) residency positions.
U.S. allopathic medical school senior students comprised 18,539 of
the active applicants, 352 more than in 2016. "
US medical school graduates have no problems matching, the ~5% who don't usually do so because of their match application strategy, and have the opportunity to scramble at unfilled positions (of which there are ~1300).
The drop out rate for med school is under 5%. Infectious disease is a 3 year fellowship that's done after completing a 3 year internal medicine residency. Oddly, the average salary for infectious disease specialists is lower than that of internal medicine physicians. Economically, it doesn't make sense for internal medicine physicians to spend 3 years doing a fellowship only to make less money on the other end. On top of that, these physicians are missing out on an attending's salary during those 3 years of fellowship.
The following shows the percentage of residency positions filled by speciality: http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Main-Match-Re...