Doctor Shortage Likely to Worsen With Health Law

Posted by Kendall Harmon

In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now.

Other places around the country, including the Mississippi Delta, Detroit and suburban Phoenix, face similar problems. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. And that number will more than double by 2025, as the expansion of insurance coverage and the aging of baby boomers drive up demand for care. Even without the health care law, the shortfall of doctors in 2025 would still exceed 100,000.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • --The 2009 American Health Care Reform Debate • * Economics, Politics • Economy • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

4 Comments
Posted July 30, 2012 at 10:00 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Capt. Father Warren wrote:

Gee, what part of this problem couldn’t we see coming?  Simple economics of supply vs demand.  You gin up demand by making everything “free” but do nothing to increase supply.  Since price controls will be in effect, that means only one possible thing can happen:  rationing.

Matters not whether you are liberal, conservative, or from Venus; can’t beat the ole laws of supply and demand just like you can’t repeal the law of gravity.

July 30, 6:55 pm | [comment link]
2. Mitchell wrote:

Simple answer, out sourcing.  Quadruple the number of visas granted to doctors from foreign countries who want to come here and open a medical practice.  A supply siders solution to the problem.

July 31, 6:57 pm | [comment link]
3. dwstroudmd+ wrote:

Mitchell, Be sure and make the patients responsible to learn the out-sourced doctors’ native languages so the doctors can feel the inclusivity and celebrate the diversity that is subcultural America.  But, looking on the bright side, it should keep the Government Printing Office employees employed printing the signs in all those languages.

July 31, 8:35 pm | [comment link]
4. Sarah wrote:

RE: “Simple answer, out sourcing.”

Yes indeed—I for one love to receive tech support from the nice indian man whom I cannot understand.

Seriously, of course we all recognize you can’t have a “supply side solution” when you’re in a collectivized, State-controlled industry with central planning apparatchiks making the decisions for the peasants.

Good times.

August 1, 10:47 am | [comment link]
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