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An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal this week lays out the patient-centered argument against cutting spending on doctor training. As the medical community trends toward a dangerous doctor shortage, cutting their education funds will only increase the trend.
Medicare today reimburses hospital training programs by about a third of their training budget. That figure is proposed to be cut in half, by about $4 billion. Since the increasingly diminishing incidence of private practices means that most doctors are a part of the hospital-operated system, the budget cutting can have a substantial effect on the total number of doctors in our near future.
If the authors of this article are correct, and doctors dwindle relative to patient expansion, then patient wait times will increase. The Department of Health and Human Services predicts 10% of our population will wait months to see a doctor.
This comes at a time of expanded coverage under "Obamacare" and a growing elderly population. According to the census, America will have 72 million seniors -- almost twice the present figure. Fewer doctors will be around anyway because doctors are getting older: about one of three doctors are over 55 years of age.
This potential crisis is highlighted by the Association of American Medical Colleges, which claims we will need 90,000 additional doctors by 2020 and 130,000 doctors by 2025 just to keep up. This means an additional 6,000 to 8,000 doctors must graduate each year for 20 years, above today's average of 16,000, which was capped by Congress in 1997.
If this Wall Street Journal piece is right, the cap should be lifted and Medicare's doctor training funding should not be lifted.
As a practicing medical malpractice, wrongful death, and personal injury attorney in New York, I pay attention to the patient-centered effects of potential legislation like this every day. If you have experienced related problems, I want you to pick up the phone and call me. I can help.
If you would like more information about how medical malpractice cases work in the state of New York, I encourage you to explore my educational website http://www.oginski-law.com. If you have legal questions, I urge you to pick up the phone and call me at 516-487-8207 or by e-mail at lawmed10@yahoo.com to answer your questions. That's what I do every day. I welcome your call.
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