Doctor Shortages in America

I know people who are doctors and there are several reasons for the shortage. First it is extremely tough to become a doctor. I knew a guy from his freshman year in college all the way through residency who now is part of a practice. Residency alone was an extraordinary amount of work and the battery of tests was a nightmare in itself. Now Obama is trying to Nationalize Health Care and this is only going to make matters worse:

The officials said they were particularly concerned about shortages of primary care providers who are the main source of health care for most Americans.

One proposal — to increase Medicare payments to general practitioners, at the expense of high-paid specialists — has touched off a lobbying fight.

Family doctors and internists are pressing Congress for an increase in their Medicare payments. But medical specialists are lobbying against any change that would cut their reimbursements. Congress, the specialists say, should find additional money to pay for primary care and should not redistribute dollars among doctors — a difficult argument at a time of huge budget deficits.

Some of the proposed solutions, while advancing one of President Obama’s goals, could frustrate others. Increasing the supply of doctors, for example, would increase access to care but could make it more difficult to rein in costs.

The need for more doctors comes up at almost every Congressional hearing and White House forum on health care. “We’re not producing enough primary care physicians,” Mr. Obama said at one forum. “The costs of medical education are so high that people feel that they’ve got to specialize.” New doctors typically owe more than $140,000 in loans when they graduate.

The President is only partially right, its not just the costs or even primarily the cost, its the demands and hurdles needed to become a doctor that are causing the shortage, and to be frank most of us are glad the process is so rigorous.

Solutions:

Miriam Harmatz, a lawyer in Miami, said: “My longtime primary care doctor left the practice of medicine five years ago because she could not make ends meet. The same thing happened a year later. Since then, many of the doctors I tried to see would not take my insurance because the payments were so low.”

To cope with the growing shortage, federal officials are considering several proposals. One would increase enrollment in medical schools and residency training programs. Another would encourage greater use of nurse practitioners and physician assistants. A third would expand the National Health Service Corps, which deploys doctors and nurses in rural areas and poor neighborhoods.

Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and chairman of the Finance Committee, said Medicare payments were skewed against primary care doctors — the very ones needed to coordinate the care of older people with chronic conditions like congestive heart failure, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

“Primary care physicians are grossly underpaid compared with many specialists,” said Mr. Baucus, who vowed to increase primary care payments as part of legislation to overhaul the health care system.

The use of PA's and nurse practitioners is going to go through the roof, that is all ready taking place. As for increasing payments on Medicare and Medicaid, well they probably should but that is going to add to an enormous deficit we are running. And yes Government control does lead to waiting lists for the working and middle class:

The experience of Massachusetts is instructive. Under a far-reaching 2006 law, the state succeeded in reducing the number of uninsured. But many who gained coverage have been struggling to find primary care doctors, and the average waiting time for routine office visits has increased.

Massachusetts is instructive for the waiting lists and soaring costs that are becoming synonymous with the program:


Imagine that on a Federal level and Obama and the Democrats are full of it when they say "electronic" record keeping is going to somehow generate so much savings that it balances out the increased costs. In short its the typical talking point this admin uses when faced with fiscal reality. It sounds good and it can neither be proved or disproved but allows Obama and associates to argue with a straight face.