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tazzygirl -> RE: Free College. (5/29/2011 8:02:11 AM)
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Who is paying for it, willbe? 155,000 in debt by the time a student starts getting paid.. and the top paid PCPs in this country make on average 190,000. Almost a years worth of income before they earn a dime.
This proposal isnt perfect, but it does have merit. by 2020 we will be short 40,000 primary care physicians, whom HMOs and Insurance companies require be seen before any specialist, labeling them the "gate keepers". The Association of American Medical Colleges predict a shortage of 150,000 by 2015. Take your pick as to which you believe.
The shortage is real, and as Boomers hit and the health care law come into full effect, the shortage will become worse. Part of the reason why is so many specialize.. which isnt a bad thing.. but does nothing to relieve the shortage facing the gate keepers.
quote:
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.
A shortage of primary-care and other physicians could mean more-limited access to health care and longer wait times for patients.
Proponents of the new health-care law say it does attempt to address the physician shortage. The law offers sweeteners to encourage more people to enter medical professions, and a 10% Medicare pay boost for primary-care doctors.
Meanwhile, a number of new medical schools have opened around the country recently. As of last October, four new medical schools enrolled a total of about 190 students, and 12 medical schools raised the enrollment of first-year students by a total of 150 slots, according to the AAMC. Some 18,000 students entered U.S. medical schools in the fall of 2009, the AAMC says.
But medical colleges and hospitals warn that these efforts will hit a big bottleneck: There is a shortage of medical resident positions. The residency is the minimum three-year period when medical-school graduates train in hospitals and clinics.
There are about 110,000 resident positions in the U.S., according to the AAMC. Teaching hospitals rely heavily on Medicare funding to pay for these slots. In 1997, Congress imposed a cap on funding for medical residencies, which hospitals say has increasingly hurt their ability to expand the number of positions.
Medicare pays $9.1 billion a year to teaching hospitals, which goes toward resident salaries and direct teaching costs, as well as the higher operating costs associated with teaching hospitals, which tend to see the sickest and most costly patients.
I often wonder if those in Congress realize the domino effect thier attempts at health care reform have, especially when adjusting the Medicare rules. Medicare pays for more than just the little old couple that lives next door.
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