Health care reform is one of the nation’s biggest hot button political issues right now. One cannot even bring it up in a crowded room without starting a vehement debate. Typically the reform debate falls on the pricing structure. This is typically directed at doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and the insurance providers. No doubt that the nation’s crisis – and it is a crisis, health care costs are growing at a rate that will consume the entire American economy if left unchecked – needs some reform in pricing. The economic rules of supply and demand cannot be left alone when supply is limited to the number of professionals available and demand is only limited by a person’s will to live…which means that it is actually infinite. However, the giant elephant in the room surrounding this debate is the supply of doctors. The United States is facing a critical shortage of qualified physicians and it projects to grow far worse in the coming years. No solution to the nation’s health care will be viable unless it addresses this shortfall.

The number of new American doctors is relatively constant from year to year. The number of medical schools does not change drastically over the short term and the number of seats available in each school is pretty static. However, the overall population of the United States is growing. And, with medical research advances, so is the number of treatments available to this population. As such, each doctor has a greater workload. When demand greatly outweighs supply, simple economics dictates that this will push prices higher. In most industries, as those prices increase, demand begins to dwindle and eventually the price settles at a given point. However, with health care being an often necessary aspect to continue living, this does not occur. In fact, for many procedures, demand only falls when an individual’s entire net worth is exhausted. The only long-term answer to this equation, short of socialized medicine with cost regulation (which is a direction this country is very reluctant to go), is to flood the market with supply. While that is much easier said than done, there are some steps that can be taken to close the shortage gap.

The first step is to expand the American supply. This means building more medical schools and expanding current ones. This is a very tough sell when states are struggling mightily with their own budgets. This is where they have to go to the people and lay out very clearly and as simply as possible where the citizens would see the benefits. More medical school seats = more medical professionals = greater supply = lower prices to consumers in both the short and long term. It is extremely tough to sell tax payers on any kind of a hike, but if they can see the long term economic benefit – it makes much more sense than vague promises where legislatures claim that they know what is best for their people.

Unfortunately, the physician shortage is so great that there is no way that it can be closed alone by American medical universities. A cheaper and simple solution to close this gap is to work with existing foreign schools to produce doctors that can work in the United States. There are literally hundreds of medical schools operating outside US borders with students who dream of becoming a doctor in the United States. However, most of these schools are not recognized by American boards and their graduates are ineligible to practice within the borders. By working with these medical schools to provide a US curriculum and teach towards American standards, the nation will not only be helping to increase its supply of medical professionals, but the schools themselves will be able to sell this aspect to future students – thus increasing their own demand and ability to increase funding to provide a better education still.

These ideas may not completely close the physician shortage gap, but they are steps in the right direction. One thing is for certain: if the shortage is ignored, there is no solution to health care reform that benefits anyone beyond profiteers.

Author Bio: Medical Schools: US – Stanford Med US – Washington Med Caribbean Medical Schools – American University of Antigua

Category: Medical Business
Keywords: Medical schools, doctors, US healthcare