By ArickStall
One big aspect of the new healthcare reform was forgotten: the doctors.
While there are those of us who want to pull the “I told you so line,” it would be best just to present the facts. Now, under law, more Americans will be insured. It’s just unfortunate there will be no one to treat them.
The Wall Street Journal says experts are now estimating a “shortage of 150,000 U.S. doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.” And quite frankly, the medical school supply of new doctors is not going to keep up with the demand of expanded coverage.
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….
You can continue reading this article here.
What will be some consequences of this so-called “healthcare reform?” It seems an obvious one is spending dubious amounts of money on a new system where the coverage is present, but the doctor is not. I foresee a future where excessive amounts of money are pumped into the new system to give breaks and grants to those that want to go into the medical profession. What would be the effects of this idea? I imagine doctors will not be educated as well and being in the medical profession will lose its prestige.
How will the shortage of doctors be covered in the short-term, though? Outsource! Give incentives for foreign medical doctors to practice in the United States. And the ugly cycle of wasteful spending continues while the rest of the world, including Fidel Castro, applauds Obama, considering the healthcare reform a “success” of his administration.