Medical Schools Can't Keep Up

[BlueStateSaint]

In the Wall Street Journal, and on Drudge.


Medical Schools Can't Keep Up

As Ranks of Insured Expand, Nation Faces Shortage of 150,000 Doctors in 15 Years

By SUZANNE SATALINE And SHIRLEY S. WANG



First-year resident Dr. Rachel Seay, third from left, circumcises a newborn in George Washington University Hospital's delivery wing on March 12.

The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors.

Experts warn there won't be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

That shortfall is predicted despite a push by teaching hospitals and medical schools to boost the number of U.S. doctors, which now totals about 954,000.

The greatest demand will be for primary-care physicians. These general practitioners, internists, family physicians and pediatricians will have a larger role under the new law, coordinating care for each patient.

The U.S. has 352,908 primary-care doctors now, and the college association estimates that 45,000 more will be needed by 2020. But the number of medical-school students entering family medicine fell more than a quarter between 2002 and 2007.


The rest of the article is here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304506904575180331528424238.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

I remember having an argument similar to this when I worked at the lab.  One of the real moonbat PhD's, who I still talk with from time to time, tried to tell me that there were too many doctors out there.  I responded with something along these lines:  "Try telling that to a coal-mining community in West Virginia, or Tennessee, or Virginia.  You'll get laughed out of the place--if they don't kill you first."  For some strange reason, he shut right up.

[The Village Idiot]

ObamaCare is shutting down hospitals, did anyone see my post?

Where will they work?

Replacing all those retiring doctors?

[JohnnyReb]

The AMA controls the schools and the admissions....they want a shortage of doctors to keep prices up.

CAPITALISM is the answer not government regs.....supply and demand DAMMIT

[lars1701c]

I got a sick feeling the Fed's answer to this will be.....WAIT FOR IT......MORE government.

[Chris_]

There WILL be rationing and general lack of care, it's only the beginning, it is going to get a lot worse.

[DefiantSix]

There WILL be rationing and general lack of care, it's only the beginning, it is going to get a lot worse.

There will be that, but you forget that the Feds also have their fingers in the "student loan" pie.  What's to stop them from ordering kids who would have been fine accountants, lawyers or engineers had they been permitted to choose the course they were actually suited to, to be trained instead as (mediocre) doctors instead?

[longview]

I wonder if there will be a push for more technician-type providers.  Lower paid, without the holistic and extensive training of physicians.  Health care delivered in a more piecemeal fashion.

The per visit or procedure cost would decrease, but it would not be equal to the reduced salary of the technician
and would result in an increase in profit for, say, a care group that employs them.

[The Village Idiot]

profit will not be allowed