Posted on 04/27/2009 5:21:53 AM PDT by Jim Noble
WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase the supply of physicians to meet the needs of an aging population and millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president...
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 Association of American Medical Colleges is advocating a 30 percent increase in medical school enrollment, which would produce 5,000 additional doctors each year...
“If we expand coverage, we need to make sure we have physicians to take care of a population that is growing and becoming older,” said Dr. Atul Grover, the chief lobbyist for the association. “Let’s say we insure everyone. What next? We won’t be able to take care of all those people overnight.”...
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...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He'll simply do for docs what the gummint did with officer candidates just after WWII began.
he'll make docs "shovel ready"....or, "how to become a real MD in 90 days"!!
I think the only qualification is that one must have at least a GED to get into the program.
This is just now being noticed???????
Brrack should just make a decree, that there “Shall be more doctors” and it will be so.
Or he can import from every third-world hellhole. That’ll work too.
the shortage is artificial thanks to the AMA. there is no shortage of highly-qualified candidates from india, china, or the like. although they often don’t have the benefit of being able to speak english...
Appears I wasn't too funny after all!!
Ya know...I'm old now. My kids are raised and successful in their own careers - yes even during the "barry obammer downturn".
I don't worry so much about me....but my kids and grandkids have a heck of a world to live in.
I've counciled both my kids to save like crazy, learn to be fully conversant in at least one foreign language, pick two places in the world where they think they could live, study everything they can about these two places...and be ready to vacate the US at a moment's notice.
They look puzzled until they realize what I said.
How to stay away from government run hospitals:
1) Implement a healthy diet with fruits veggies etc.
2) Stay away from eating out.PERIOD.
3) If it has too many ingredients..AVOID it
4) Exercise and stretch daily....
5) Find SOMETHING to laugh about 3 times a day to keep sanity.
6) Google home remedies....many work
7) Pray
Doctors are already telling their kids not to go into the profession. My sister-in-law’s pediatrician closed up shop a few weeks ago, and he’s a young man.
Easy solution...import witch doctors from Kenya!
A democrat concerned with primary care physicians being underpaid? ... that is a novel concept. Now if we hear a democrat saying that malpractice lawyers are overpaid, I might take further note and if they say the government intrusion into health care has screwed it, then I will really be a believer.
Excellent advice! (I'd add only, listen to music daily!) In our family we have a long tradition of avoiding hospitals and doctors...because when we don't, we have real bad luck with them.
The leftist government has already taken over the banks, the media, and education. Will health care be next?
Zero needs to ask himself why anyone would want to go into any medical field with Socialized Medicine on the horizon. The silence will be deafening.
Because by the time they must flee, there will not be anything left to stand up and fight for.
And before you beat it to death...yes, I am a vet. So it one of my two kids. So you can leave that angle alone.
Regulatory controls gone bad...what’s new?
Add to the mix the Little Dictators decision that all doctors must perform abortions and one can envision acute shortages in the medical field. It is one thing to be “pro-choice” it is another to have to actually do the killing...
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