Posted on 04/25/2008 8:00:06 AM PDT by Brilliant
It is not so much a limitation of the applicant pool as it is funding and training resources. The costs for each medical student are very high, and a significant portion, for better or worse, is provided by the feds. The physical plant requirements are also significant and expensive.
Baby Boomers are at the end of the Ponzi Scheme and are totally screwed.
This needs to be placed right at the feet of the people responsible. The Medical Industry. The upcoming shortage has been known for years, and the Medical Industry has known and talked about it. But they didnt increase enrollment.
On a related note, I notice that the previous good care people had received in the seventies, eighties and ninties is being replaced by the “if you dont complain, I will not address it. Example, years ago a cardiac stress test was a nomative part of a complete workup. Now you have to complain of chest pain, be short of breath or be private pay.
Say that you are short of breath on exertion and get a complete workup
I advise young people so inclined to go into dentistry. Smaller loans. Ease of admissions. And a CASH business with high profit margins.
Big, big equipment startup costs.
I will grant you that it’s expensive, but the returns are still phenomenal. I think all they’ve got to do is open the spigot by relaxing the regulatory restrictions, and the natural pressure will fill up the bucket. If you could create more doctors just by spending more money, I think the private sector would do it. The problem is that the government allows the profession to restrict their numbers, so there is no point for private individuals other than the students themselves and their lenders to invest in medical education. It won’t increase the number of doctors at all. And the only people who would benefit are the medical students who therefore would not have to come out of pocket.
If there were qualified students who’d been admitted to medical school but did not have the money to go, you can bet that they’d find a lot of businesses willing to sponsor them in exchange for a commitment on their part to service their business upon graduation.
Oh, but I agree that it’s not a limitation on the applicant pool. The bottle neck is that there are plenty of applicants who can’t get in because their aren’t enough positions available in medical schools due to the restrictions that have been imposed by the profession via the accredidation process.
Mother Theresa spoke about this many years ago when she said that the person who probably would have found the cure for cancer was aborted.
I have often wondered how many geniuses have been killed. Of course, I once mentioned this to someone who had a pessimistic view of life and she just said, “How do we know we didn’t just abort the next Hitler?”
I’m only glad I don’t think like that gal.
A new osteopathic medical school in Mesa, Arizona is an exception. They teach over 100 medical students at round tables (6 per table) in a single large room. The entire medical school occupies less than a whole floor of a medium-size office building, maybe 20K square feet total.
The students spend one year at the school, learning the basics of medicine, and using instrumented medical dummies to accelerate getting the physical part right. After the first year, the students go in groups of 10 to community health centers, with a dedicated faculty member, to continue their education. For the third and fourth years, the students go on "rotation", again to community health centers, to hone their skills under the supervision of local physicians.
Medical education doesn't have to happen at an expensive medical research center. Tuition at this medical school is less than undergraduate tuition at many private colleges.
We damned our parents and their political leaders for their materialistic greed. Our parents never envisioned the materialism we boomers exhibit. Greed by the use of credit cards. I see greed in many of the corporate board rooms.
The companies we work for now are being led by boomers, many of whom are more interested in getting private jets, expensive decor for the office, expanding willy-nilly.
Boomer politicians no longer know how to really work for a living. Their hunger for more and more governmental control which leads to more taxes which leads to more raises and perks for them is affecting all of us. Yes, our generation brought us to alot of this mess in America and only God can repair things. But I really believe that to do so will mean alot of pain and suffering for alot of Americans.
The ‘47 Million Uninsured’ Myth
IBD | August 29, 2007
Posted on 08/29/2007 7:39:12 PM PDT by Kaslin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1888637/posts
Socialized medicine isn’t the only way to ensure a doctor shortage. Cut fees low enough and insurance companies are ‘acheiving’ the same effect.
Get ready for foreign born and trained doctors.
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