ABC
Doctor shortage could crash health care
The United States will require at least 52,000 more family doctors in the year 2025 to keep up with the growing and increasingly older U.S. population, a new study found.
The predictions also reflect the passage of the Affordable Care Act — a change that will expand health insurance coverage to an additional 38 million Americans. …
The problem does not appear to be one of too few doctors in general; in fact, in 2011 a total of 17,364 new doctors emerged from the country’s medical schools, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Too few of these doctors, however, choose primary care as a career — an issue that may be worsening.
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The legacy media has a lot of backdated reports they have to get out after the election embargo…pay no attention.
d1carter on November 13, 2012 at 11:53 PM
I propose we institute the National Doctoral Educational Committee for Excellence.
This board will select citizens (in a sense, like a selective service) to become doctors under the Affordable Hellcare Act.
blatantblue on November 13, 2012 at 11:53 PM
And under New Economic Patriotism’s series of Five Year Plans, the only people who will want to go into medicine will be starry-eyed socialists, which is precisely according to plan.
Cuba here we come!
Dirt McGirt on November 13, 2012 at 11:55 PM
Nothing a little unskilled labor south of the border can’t fix! Right, Establishment Republicans? Huh? Am I right?
Punchenko on November 13, 2012 at 11:58 PM
Yea, and smart White kids are going to want to bust their back taking Med School so they can work for a “single payer” system.
I am sure Obama will bring in Lots of Kenya Doctors on 1B visas.
This is all Kennedy Immigration act 1965. How you liking the Multiculturalism there Whites?
Bulletchaser on November 13, 2012 at 11:58 PM
Let it burn.
jawkneemusic on November 14, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Every job in the healthcare field become 10x more unattractive the second Obamacare got passed. Doctors I have met hate dealing with the govt as it is. This will only make it worse.
WisCon on November 14, 2012 at 12:01 AM
I’m sure the government can order med school students to do what the government wants.
El_Terrible on November 14, 2012 at 12:08 AM
DING DING DING. That bill has single handedly ruined this country. And the GOP stood by and watched it happen and did nothing.
TxAnn56 on November 14, 2012 at 12:11 AM
This post points out one of the major, unfixable, unworkable problems with Obamacare.
The absolutely delicious irony is that Obamacare, the major initiative of our first black president, can only be financed by re-instituting slavery… for doctors and other health care providers!!!
Liberals, of course, lack an irony gene.
landlines on November 14, 2012 at 12:15 AM
Well, we do import thousands of Indian, Pakistani, and Chinese doctors to fill primary care residency programs.
Outlander on November 14, 2012 at 12:19 AM
This idea won’t work.
ArkyDore on November 14, 2012 at 12:24 AM
Either they know English and will compete for a better residency or don’t know English and won’t be able to interact heavily with their patients.
ArkyDore on November 14, 2012 at 12:27 AM
It’s not just a question of the number of docs coming out of training.
One thing that’s not mentioned much is that new docs coming out aren’t going to work the kind of hours that the old geezers did once upon a time.
Add in the fact that docs are often spending more time on the paper work that’s required than in actually practicing medicine.
Let it burn.
Light it with a lib.
justltl on November 14, 2012 at 12:37 AM
Only a matter of time before the government tells medical students that if they want a federal student loan they have to go into primary care, also that they have to learn to do abortions. And the planners will try to figure out some way to force plastic surgeons and LASIK doctors out of those specialties.
I have been arguing today on Twitter with some liberal pointy-head who says we don’t need MDs to do most things and can use nurses who are cheaper and don’t require as much training.
It’s ALWAYS the doctors who are at fault to these people. Never the lawyers that have forced hospitals and doctors into buying disposable everything, hugely expensive NICU units and MRIs and CT scanners in every hospital, EKGs for people coming to the ER with migraines, pointless surgery for extremely old people, etc.
rockmom on November 14, 2012 at 12:55 AM
I’ve ranted about this several times before, but in short:
– newer docs are lazy. Docs used to be type A, workaholic maniacs. I have partners in their 70s who are millionaires many times over, but still work 60+ hrs/wk because they love it. Millenials are happy to take employed, lower salary jobs with cushy hours. This isn’t good for patients
– the influx of women into medicine via affirmative action is an 800lb gorilla no one will touch in any discussion of the doctor shortage. 50-55% of med students are now women. Many, if not most, never even work full time after graduation. Many marry other doctors and decide to be moms, and work part time on and off. Many quit the field altogether. This is a massive waste of resources, considering the amount of taxpayer subsidy that goes into educating each doctor
– academic doctors are hardcore leftists like most other academics. They control almost every step of the admissions process also, since most training occurs at academic med centers (med schools, residencies, fellowships, etc). There is overt selection and indoctrination of medical students at every step of way during your education by the leftists. Think back to the UW doctors passing out fraudulent sick notes at the Wisconson union protests– these are the idiots you have to bow to, if you want to even get into med school, let alone make it through. They are selecting ditzy, save the world types rather than the best, brightest and hardest working who just want to work hard and make a few bucks. That answer will get you a nice rejection letter.
– the younger generation of millenials entering the medical field is a trainwreck. They are lazy, entitled, and arrogant, and have been coddled like no other generation of doctors because of all kinds of work hour limits and touchy feely rules imposed over the past few years on graduate education. Anyone who thinks the gen Y docs coming out will work even 50% as much as their predecessors did, is in for a rude awakening
What do I think will happen? Mass exodus of hard working docs in their prime like myself over the next decade. Patients will be forced to receive a larger proportion of their care from poorly educated mid level providers (nurse practioners and physician assistants) with minimal supervision. The leftists don’t mind this, they pay them a fraction of what docs command anyway.
God help us all
thurman on November 14, 2012 at 1:05 AM
Oh, and as academic docs have to scramble more to make a living, there’s a lot less time for teaching medical students and doctors in training (interns and residents).
Of course the interns and residents are only permitted to work a limited number of hours during training, so they aren’t around as much these days anyway. But hey, they all have a healthy respect for “lifestyle” as opposed to treating medical practice as a calling or raison d’être. And that’s what’s important, right? Having more free time to go for nice bicycle rides and trips to the zoo and such. It’s so retro to devote yourself to your career.
And now that I think of it, the career kinda sucks more and more anyway, what with the lower wages, lower respect, ever present threat of lawsuits, paper work galore, less indepence, pressure to cut down on length of stay of patients,protocolized practice, et cetera, et cetera, et friggin’ etc.
Wonder if they have any new animals at the zoo?
justltl on November 14, 2012 at 1:11 AM
Hey thurman, you don’t happen to be a surgeon in a four letter state that was important in destroying the country in a recent election, are you?
justltl on November 14, 2012 at 1:15 AM
Only problem is they generally are too stupid to understand all the science courses. Of course if good care is unimportant than it’s all good.
arnold ziffel on November 14, 2012 at 1:19 AM
Plenty of Muslim kids want to be doctors.
Mormontheman on November 14, 2012 at 1:28 AM
As a layman and anonymous internet cynic, I made a projection here:
thurman, who knows of what he speaks, laid it out proper here:
Great, now I’m even more pessimistic!
Dirt McGirt on November 14, 2012 at 1:28 AM
rogerb on November 14, 2012 at 1:37 AM
Where was this article 3 weeks ago? Don’t tell me, it just now came to ABC’s attention after the election is over.
Dollayo on November 14, 2012 at 2:34 AM
Don’t Bogart that lib, my friend.
Pass it over to me…
/faster and hotter, please
Kraken on November 14, 2012 at 3:33 AM
Hehe, I do not think Libs that support this really understand the implications of this bill. All they saw was covering a bunch of people including high risk and that is all they wanted to hear and supported it.
They NEVER looked into it deeper. Let me claim right now that when this bill goes in full effect and then the ones who fell for the “everyone is covered” BS and they start seeing thier quality of care fall though the floor… they will wake up.
Sadly, it will then be too late because the medicine we know it now will be wreaked. Exactly what the libs in power wanted… a huge amount of control over us surfs.
Up next, communications.
watertown on November 14, 2012 at 3:44 AM
+1
spot on d1c
cmsinaz on November 14, 2012 at 5:52 AM
The reality based community assumes doctors are overpaid.
rob verdi on November 14, 2012 at 5:55 AM
It’s amazing the number of stories that have come out since the election that would have affected the vote if they had come out before the election.
The economy, Benghazi, Sandy, health care…
Such a coincidence, huh?
itsnotaboutme on November 14, 2012 at 6:37 AM
I’ve been telling people (including family members) for ages, and no one wanted to listen, that there is a massive difference between medical INSURANCE and medical CARE. We could have bought every uninsured American citizen a Cadillac plan for less than the PPACA is hitting us, and they still wouldn’t receive care if they can’t find a doctor who is taking new patients. Heck, 20 years ago in SE CT you couldn’t find an OB taking new patients, even if you had a top of the line BC/BS plan.
Greater subsidization of medical school, so that docs aren’t coming out a quarter of a million or more in debt (which helps drive them away from family practice, do to the poor reiumbursement) would go a lot further towards getting more americans medical care. That too would have cost a lot less than the PPACA.
LibraryGryffon on November 14, 2012 at 6:59 AM
Republicans wanted cheap labor for their cronies. They supported it.
Shortages like this have been going on in places like the UK for decades. They will start mandating the fields doctors can work in or the locales, or more likely will tie all student loans to requirements to work in ‘under-served’ areas post graduation.
Firefly_76 on November 14, 2012 at 7:05 AM
Let the “unintended consequences of good intentions” commence!
Economic illiteracy is the foundation of the modern Democrat party.
visions on November 14, 2012 at 7:47 AM
A lot of doctors are selling out their practices to hospitals, becoming employees. And, there are too many women being admitted to medical school. They have the brains, but are they going to be willing to work the hours and forgo children and motherhood? I am all for nurse practitioners, who are well trained and supervised by physicians. But the question remains, who really wants to be an internist or family practitioner? They are probably the lowest paid of all physicians? My Father started out as a family practitioner in a small town in the 1940s and then decided to specialize. He went back to school to become a Radiologist.
SC.Charlie on November 14, 2012 at 8:00 AM
This is a perfect example in free markets. Doctors can make significantly more money specializing. Primary care pays $50K a year to $100K a year. Where, oncology pays up to $800K a year.
Why would anyone settle for $50K a year, when a few more years of training could make you up to $800K a year?
Following the laws of supply and demand primary care physicians salaries will rise.
However, when the government gets in the way, you throw all this out the window.
nazo311 on November 14, 2012 at 8:08 AM
Wow. That is their choice. Your comment that ‘too many women’ are admitted to medical school is a truly ignorant one. As long as they make the cut, they should be able to go. Starting a family is their choice. My primary care physician is a woman who has kids…..it can be done.
nazo311 on November 14, 2012 at 8:12 AM
Dr.Nick Riviera may be available.
Mimzey on November 14, 2012 at 8:21 AM
I will agree to that …………… along with the fact that students aren’t being taught enough history, along with a lot of other critical subjects. Our entire educational system is being dumbed down, so that no child is left behind.
SC.Charlie on November 14, 2012 at 8:27 AM
So tired of beating this drum. The shortage will be felt long before there is a supply of new internists. Assume medical schools throw open their doors to any and all comers (GPAs above a 1.0), assume residencies throw open their doors to any and all internists and family practice residents who apply (even in places that don’t have enough staff or patient load to support them so inadequate training), assume all educational debt is forgiven for them (300-500k per student), assume they want to go to the areas that have shortages (you name it-ville). Still, after all these assumptions, it takes a minimum of 8 years from July 1, 2013 to have a newly minted supply of internists to meet the shortage. Good luck with that in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
txmomof6 on November 14, 2012 at 8:30 AM
My primary doctor is a woman. I am fine with her being a doctor. She is very dedicated to her job. But she has also made the decision not to have a family, which I find sad. Being a physician is a full-time job and so is being a mother.
SC.Charlie on November 14, 2012 at 8:34 AM
The question remains, will the current system of educating new doctors provide us with the necessary doctors that we will need in the future. You are dodging a very serious question that I have posed.
SC.Charlie on November 14, 2012 at 8:40 AM
But you see this is not about health care. It is about libs feeling good about themselves because they “helped” the less fortunate. That’s all they care about. It’s always all about them.
IdrilofGondolin on November 14, 2012 at 8:41 AM
Let me clear this up a little.
Nurse practitiioners in most states do not need to be supervised by physicians. That’s because nurses in nursing school are intensively trained in assessment. The only difference between a nurse and a doctor is that nurses do nursing diagnoses. NPs train further to do medical diagnoses.
It’s physician assistants that have to be under a doctor’s supervision. That’s because they go straight into school to become PAs and don’t undergo training in the nursing process.
However, don’t let the lack of an MD after either practitioner’s name fool you. NPs and PAs often are more thorough in their evaluations, take more time with you and can actually be more accurate in their diagnoses and treatments – at least, that’s been my family’s experience. My personal physician is a PA. I’ll see his physician supervisor on occasion, but he usually ends up prescribing the wrong things for me which my PA then corrects and then I actually start feeling better.
I’m in my last year of nursing school. I’ll graduate with an RN, but I plan to go on for my NP – probably in midwifery, maybe family practice.
Mommynator on November 14, 2012 at 9:26 AM
If there’s a doctor shortage, it’s a seller’s market, which means that what you’re going to have is state’s competing against each other to create te most attractive climate possible for physicians. Which is where the next bit of fun may come in.
Texas is doing good on attracting new doctors both from other states and from medical school, due to two things: Tort reform and a state law that pays doctors up to $140,000 in med school bills if the sign a contract to work for four years in a rural or low-income urban area. Other states can use their tax dollars to match the latter, but for the former, that’s going to be tougher for the Blue States, because it runs head on into the Democrats’ powerful tort lawyer lobby.
So does a doctor take a job in a prestigious city in a Blue State, where he still gets shorted on Medicare reimbursement but also faces a higher chance of being nailed with a malpractice suit (juries will still think, post-ObamaCare, that physicians are made of money), or does he go to a Red State, where the compensation levels are still lower under the new law, but he/she is less likely to lose what they are getting in court or to malpractice insurance premiums. My guess is a few years from now liberals will once again find the law of unintended consequences has reared it’s ugly head on them.
jon1979 on November 14, 2012 at 9:35 AM
Exactly what is this subsidy? Many doctors I know have to borrow $100K-$250K+ to pay for medical school.
nazo311 on November 14, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Not dodging anything. If she wants to have a family, that is her choice. My doctor pays for day care. Nothing wrong with that at all. A lot of working families do that. Being a mother and a physician are not mutually exclusive. Are you implying they are?
nazo311 on November 14, 2012 at 12:03 PM