US News Medical Schools Can't Keep Up - Nation Faces Shortage of 150,000 Doctors in 15 Years

[The Helper]

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.

Read the news here.

 

[seph ir oth]

...and this is why the gov't shouldn't be forcing you to buy healthcare.

 

[Durandal]

Yea it's not helping anything...

 

[Slapshot136]

this will end up lowering the quality of doctors in the U.S. - if the schools just get huge class sizes and lower the amount of school doctors need im sure there won't be any issue of how many doctors there are, there will only be the issue of competent doctors - but let's face it, there aren't that many competent people left anyways

 

[BANANAMAN]

It's going to be a safe bet you guys will be importing doctors from countries like the Phillipines to help keep up the demand.


Thank You Obama for providing more jobs for Oversees doctors. :thup:

 

[Never_Quit]

Doubt it. Obama is lowering Doctor standards.

Lower pay and cheaper service for and from doctors. Hey don't worry, that doctor taking out your spline? Ya. He has the same education as your bus driver.

 

[Myzteryz]

Doubt it. Obama is lowering Doctor standards.

Lower pay and cheaper service for and from doctors. Hey don't worry, that doctor taking out your spline? Ya. He has the same education as your bus driver.

Exaggeration much? Holy crap. People just love to jump on Obama's back whenever they get the chance. Personally, I don't care for the man but the amount of hate he gets is the reason why the world is so fucked up these days. Though that attitude has probably been around for a very long time. Human nature maybe.

The way I see it, this means more doctor job openings. This means some fundings may be appropriated more towards the medical area (if thats even possible, I always thought thats what all schools mainly focuses on these days)

 

[Bartuc08]

So I'm part of the military, and we get free health care, The health care provided to us is by semi trained military members, most of which got there training through practicing on whoever comes through there office, so I'd say 37% of the time you could leave with another problem, and maybe not even be fixed.

Now that's just the military side of things, imagine offering this service to EVERYONE in the united states, Doctors would not be making as much, and would be required to work harder. Not to mention to meet the demands of so many patients school would start allowing anyone though. So instead of just having a small percentage of people (those who can afford health care) getting quality service, you now have an entire nation getting sub-par health care. On one hand, yes you may be helping the poor, but there's also the undeserving to take into account (no I'm not saying the poor are the undeserving, I'm referring to those who hop aboard the welfare train and abuse the system).

I think this health care thing needs to be re-thought out, but at this point it's to late, you can't just take away something this big.

 

[CatCat]

this will end up lowering the quality of doctors in the U.S. - if the schools just get huge class sizes and lower the amount of school doctors need im sure there won't be any issue of how many doctors there are, there will only be the issue of competent doctors - but let's face it, there aren't that many competent people left anyways

Will it truly? Shortage =/= lower quality. They will not suddenly accept more students and overflow their classes. If you want to study to become a doctor you need three things, interest, money,and determination. Just because there's a shortage of doctors doesn't mean that there will suddenly be more people with these things. Classes will still be expensive, people will still have to study, and standards will have to be met.

Doubt it. Obama is lowering Doctor standards.
Lower pay and cheaper service for and from doctors. Hey don't worry, that doctor taking out your spline? Ya. He has the same education as your bus driver.

I thought that universities weren't government regulated? Public schools? yea sure, but universities? Perhaps that's why you came with your ridiculous bus driver comparison. public schools pop out bus drivers, doctors on the other hand need to go to universities.

Do you people even have any idea what you're talking about? If you want to motivate people to become doctors you aren't going to achieve that by lowering the pay. It's simple supply and demand.

Universities are NOT comparable to public schools. There is no teacher holding your hand telling you what to do, most of the time you'll be reading a theoretical book. It's not uncommon to have lectures with 100-200 people, and it never really has been. Have you ever been in a university?

Stop assuming things, and most importantly stop saying "schools" Doctors go to Colleges/Universities.

 

[Slapshot136]

Will it truly? Shortage =/= lower quality. They will not suddenly accept more students and overflow their classes. If you want to study to become a doctor you need three things, interest, money,and determination. Just because there's a shortage of doctors doesn't mean that there will suddenly be more people with these things. Classes will still be expensive, people will still have to study, and standards will have to be met.

shortage =/= lower quality, but to alleviate the shortage to the point where there isn't a shortage, then there will be 10x as many doctors as there are now - why would the "new" doctors be as good as the "original" doctors if the "college/universities" were forced into graduating 10 times as many people? it means that not just the top 10% graduate, it means everyone graduates - that or we start importing doctors from India/etc.

simple supply and demand? well if the demand increases by a factor of 10, and the supply can't match it, yet the pay for doctors will go down if anything, how can you explain that with simple supply and demand?