Posted on 08/17/2017 1:25:32 PM PDT by Thalean
Now that President Trump has signaled his support for the RAISE Act, many Americans are being forced to think about the merits and pitfalls of our legal immigration system. One important problem that has received no attention is how the large-scale immigration of foreign physicians has contributed to the atrophying of our medical schools.
Specifically, America’s universities can no longer train enough medical practitioners to meet the nation’s healthcare demands—America relies on the immigration of foreign professionals to maintain its healthcare system, and standard of living. In a sense, we rely on imported physicians like we rely on foreign oil.
Before beginning, let’s be clear: there are more physicians per capita in America than at any other point in time. There are also more nurses, physiotherapists, and mental health professionals. This is good. But it’s also worth wondering how we got here: was the process organic, or artificial? Do we, as a country, actually have the educational infrastructure to train that many professionals, or are we living in a consumption bubble?
Unfortunately, we are in bubble territory. In 1982/83 America graduated roughly 16,000 physicians. This number has barely budged since. In fact, in 2015 America graduated just 18,705 physicians—that is, 17 percent more. During the same period, America’s total population increased by 39 percent, from 231.7 million in 1982, to 322 million today.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
I’m curious.
Is there anywhere that lists
the percentage of immigrant health care workers vs the percentage of native American health care workers when it is a choice between
- Socialist Single Payer healthcare
- Corporatist Welfare to big insurance and big Hospital corps.
- Capitalist competition and freedom to choose
News media reports that in the past 8 years Physicians have shifted from 53% against single payer to 53% acceptable to single payer. Yet why is it so few immigrant physicians accept Medicaid? Is any group of physicians logically consistent? Or are almost all of them hypocrites?
I had an aunt that became an RN under a WWII program.
Women doctors are less likely to want to put in the long hours that men do:
Female doctors saw on average 37 percent fewer patients than male doctors (131.9 vs. 180.6). This is not a fluke, as this data corresponds with other studies showing that female physicians work fewer hours than male physicians. For example, a 2000 study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that 22 percent of women worked part-time, versus 9 percent for men. More recent data supports the veracity of these findings. According to Medscape’s 2016 compensation survey, only 26 percent of female physicians report spending more than forty hours a week with patients, compared to 40 percent of male doctors.
And that is why medical costs are so high. They should let anyone who can pass the exams and goes through residency be a doctor
Eh, maybe. I can picture a situation involving cramming to pass exams, without ever taking a class, and then showing up as a resident and wreaking havoc on the patient population.
Limiting the AMA's control might be valuable, though. I don't think the government is all that, but, unlike the AMA, they have to consider factors other than keeping doctors' pay high.
There are also more illegals to be cared for on the public dime, more people too lazy to work, and fewer opportunities for anyone who wants to work than at any other point in time.
All of this mess was caused by government intervention in health care. Government is now the major payer and it restricts what it pays hospitals and doctors. Not only that, but trial lawyers have made malpractice insurance almost unaffordable. It’s no wonder many people have decided that becoming a doctor isn’t worth the sacrifice.
When you have socialized medicine like the UK (and it’s close here), you have crappy doctors and crappy health care. Be prepared, for the situation is only going to get worse unless doctors are allowed to work in a free market. Too bad so many doctors don’t understand that.
More Fake News!!!
PAY UP !
if you want fruit pickers. Or else get another job.
Tired of subsidizing big farms who never opened a lemonade stand.
Half of the trouble Trump is getting is because corporations will be in serious doo-doo if they have to go without their modern day slave labor. A great many literally could not stay open because their business model depends on illegal labor they can pay and treat like trash.
Fortunately they haven’t tried sponsoring anything stronger than media hit pieces. Yet.
Many of them are terrible. Curious what the lie is, however.
Did you read the article? It was highly critical of immigrant labor.
Cool. End Welfare.
Addicted to not having to pay taxes for hiring a citizen. The VA was the first to go.
Re: “In a sense, we rely on imported physicians like we rely on foreign oil.”
Baloney!
The same thing is happening in USA medicine that is happening in USA software engineering.
We import hundreds of thousands of completely “average” software engineers and general practice physicians from Third World countries.
Almost all of those Third World engineers and physicians are looking for a Green Card and Citizenship.
Consequently, they eagerly accept lower wages, fewer benefits, and longer hours.
“Average” American college students are not stupid. They make the completely rational decision NOT to compete against Third World immigrants.
The only reason we have a “shortage” of software engineers and GP physicians is because of low wages, massive LEGAL immigration, and 1 million H-1B work visas.
We have 206 law schools and only 179 medical schools.
There are a quarter million doctors and 1.22 million lawyers.
55,000 people become lawyers each year. 27,000 become doctors.
Yet how many people see a doctor every year vs. how many people see a lawyer?
There is something drastically wrong with these numbers.
That is especially true for specialists, and particularly for dermatologists.
I grew up in south Florida, spent my first 30 years in the sun playing sports and at my job, and unsurprisingly have a history of four skin cancers.
There is now a minimum two to three month wait for a dermatologist appointment, after first waiting for a GP to refer you!
Recently, two celebrities wrote books about having excisional biopsies for melanoma, which is MASSIVELY over-diagnosed in low risk patients.
Demand for Dermatology appointments surged so high my local university medical school had to stop accepting new patients for more than a year.
By the way, the University Dermatology Department is also shorthanded because of a multi-year unsuccessful effort to recruit a Black dermatologist to their all white and Asian staff.
Lawyering is easier.
And you don’t get sued.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.