Looming Shortage of Physicians: Graduates of Foreign Medical Schools

In my previous post, I begin discussing the projected looming shortage of physicians. Here and here are 2 interesting articles that analyze the phenomenon.

The mechanism to fund residency slots need to be reformed to increase the supply of physicians in the U.S.

The U.S. could increase the supply of physicians by over 5,000 annually if it found residency slots for graduates of foreign medical schools who pass all of their examinations to be eligible for a U.S. residency slot but don't get a position because of the shortage of slots available. See the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates fact card which is linked to here which details the shortage of residency slots (over 5,000 annually compared to surplus supply of qualified physicians). In fact, for the past 3 years, only 42%-44% of these qualified physicians have successfully obtained residency positions.


There is one dirty secret about the impending physician shortage. The primary funding for residency slots come from Medicare and the number of residency slots funded have been capped at the 1996 level (~100,000 positions annually) based on the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Therefore, even if our medical schools produced an infinite number of graduates, these graduates could not obtain a license to practice medicine until they finished their residencies, and they cannot do that due to the acute shortage of slots available.

There isn't a shortage of physicians, rather there is a shortage of political will among policy makers and politicians to fix this looming man-made disaster. If you show up do your doctor's office and there is nobody their to treat you - unless you are connected or willing to wait a while - like weeks or months - you will know who to blame.