- 16 Dec 2023 03:58
#15298621
There are signs that it's getting harder for Americans to find a doctor.
Why it's getting so hard to find a new doctor, and what to do if you end up looking for one , MarketWatch, Sally Benford, May 10, 2023
This is due to at least two main factors.
Not enough new doctors are being trained, there are not enough residency slots for every applicant applying who graduated from medical school.
This article goes into more detail, explaining that there are more residency slots than the number of persons graduating from U.S. schools, but after also factoring in people who trained at medical schools outside the country (some of whom are U.S. citizens and some not) there exist 0.85 positions per applicant.
Match Day 2023 a reminder of the real cause of the physician shortage: not enough residency positions, Rebekah Bernard, M.D., MedicalEconomics.com, March 15, 2023
Training doctors is expensive and requires a big investment of resources.
The other problem is the government has set up a price-fixing scheme, when it comes to the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and there is an increasing lag between what government has set the price at and the going price set by doctors.
It's a basic principle of economics that price fixing tends to cause shortages.
Under the Medicare program, a doctor is not allowed to charge the patient 15% more than the amount the government has set to pay for that procedure. If a doctor is caught charging more than that, they can face fines or ultimately lose eligibility to be reimbursed by Medicare.
In the U.S. there is a 2.9% payroll tax to pay for Medicare (half paid by the employee and half paid by the employer). Once a person reaches 65 years of age, they have access to Medicare. It's typically after around this age that a person starts requiring a lot more medical care, statistically.
This is going to end up having consequences for the American healthcare system and the population's access to healthcare.
Why it's getting so hard to find a new doctor, and what to do if you end up looking for one , MarketWatch, Sally Benford, May 10, 2023
This is due to at least two main factors.
Not enough new doctors are being trained, there are not enough residency slots for every applicant applying who graduated from medical school.
This article goes into more detail, explaining that there are more residency slots than the number of persons graduating from U.S. schools, but after also factoring in people who trained at medical schools outside the country (some of whom are U.S. citizens and some not) there exist 0.85 positions per applicant.
Match Day 2023 a reminder of the real cause of the physician shortage: not enough residency positions, Rebekah Bernard, M.D., MedicalEconomics.com, March 15, 2023
Training doctors is expensive and requires a big investment of resources.
The other problem is the government has set up a price-fixing scheme, when it comes to the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and there is an increasing lag between what government has set the price at and the going price set by doctors.
It's a basic principle of economics that price fixing tends to cause shortages.
Under the Medicare program, a doctor is not allowed to charge the patient 15% more than the amount the government has set to pay for that procedure. If a doctor is caught charging more than that, they can face fines or ultimately lose eligibility to be reimbursed by Medicare.
In the U.S. there is a 2.9% payroll tax to pay for Medicare (half paid by the employee and half paid by the employer). Once a person reaches 65 years of age, they have access to Medicare. It's typically after around this age that a person starts requiring a lot more medical care, statistically.
This is going to end up having consequences for the American healthcare system and the population's access to healthcare.