Some students go abroad to study medicine, the academic says.
A new report shows that U.S. medical schools are not producing enough doctors even as demand for medical care increases due to an aging population.
Report “Why aren’t American medical schools producing more doctors?” The Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association condemn what they call a “slow-walking” effort to increase enrollment.
Jay Greene, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former professor at the University of Arkansas, said: college fix A recent email said that foreign-educated doctors are partially filling the gap, but that is also problematic.
“Medical training and health care systems are heavily subsidized by taxpayers,” he said. Fixes. “Such a system should not create opportunities for people abroad while driving out American citizens.”
According to his research, “About one-third of foreign-trained ‘medical residents’ are U.S. citizens who were rejected by domestic medical schools and forced to leave the country.”
Relatedly, the report also noted that the number of foreign-educated doctors in the United States has “surged” in recent decades. According to the report, the proportion of doctors trained in the United States increased from 91% in 1981 to 75% in 2024. On the other hand, the proportion of doctors educated abroad increased from 9% to 25%.
The report pointed to 1980, when the U.S. “medical community” expressed concerns about an overabundance of doctors. This led the AMA and AAMC to implement medical school enrollment restrictions that “remained in place until 2005.”
However, according to the report, despite deregulation, the proportion of doctors graduating from medical school increased by only 34% from 2005 to 2024.
“The net effect of the expansion of homeopathic medical schools is that the United States produces 5 percent fewer MDs per 100,000 per year today than in 1981. 5.78 from 1981 to 2024,” the report said.
Spokespeople for the AAMC and AMA declined to comment on the report's findings. Fixes.
reason for shortage
Major medical institutions also believe there is a shortage of doctors.
A March report from the AAMC found that a significant portion of doctors are approaching retirement age. According to the report, doctors aged 65 and older accounted for 17% of the active workforce in 2021, and doctors aged 55 to 64 accounted for 25%.
As a result, the AAMC predicts that “more than one-third of currently practicing physicians will retire within the next 10 years.”
Both the AAMC and the AMA believe they are falling short due to a lack of new residency opportunities. However, according to Greene's report, “the number of residencies offered has grown faster than the country has produced new doctors since 1981.”
green said Fixes He believes there are other reasons for the shortage as well.
“The heavy emphasis on diversity goals in medical schools is making this much more difficult for students who do not fall into the preferred categories,” he said. “This is causing more qualified American students to go abroad for medical training, which is extremely inefficient and burdensome.”
At the same time, he said, cultural values about where American doctors get their training should also be considered.
“… At some point, the proportion of foreign doctors will become so high that the values and priorities of the medical profession will begin to resemble those of other countries more than those of the United States,” he said. Fixes.
“Healthcare is not a values-neutral profession, and we must be careful to ensure that foreign-trained doctors adopt American values and priorities rather than change them,” Greene said.
The number of doctors produced by U.S. medical schools has been a subject of debate for years.
A 2020 report by James Capretta, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, warns that the AAMC projects a “shortage” of up to 121,000 doctors by 2032, citing the medical association's concerns about too many doctors in the 1980s and '90s. expressed.
Capreta pointed out Fixes A recent report contacted for comment found that the ratio of doctors to Americans has increased nearly 50 percent since 1980. Nonetheless, this rate is lower than other high-income countries such as Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Canada, his report said.
solution to the problem
To address the changing needs for doctors, Capretta's report calls for less government involvement in “the structures that govern the physician pipeline,” including state medical boards that “set standards that doctors must meet before being issued a license.” I insist that it should be done.
Instead, medical schools must be “flexible and adaptable enough to respond to signs of increasing patient demand for care,” the report says.
Meanwhile, Professor Green's report singled out America's 'accreditation cartel' as a key problem, saying it has 'limited the establishment and expansion of American medical schools' and 'is the main cause of the shortage of domestically trained doctors.'
Congress can change things through “restoration”[ing] According to Greene, it controls higher education accreditation for states.
Other recommendations include providing accreditation to medical schools in Mexico and the Caribbean if they move to the United States or open branches.
The AMA also offered proposed solutions to train more doctors in the United States.
In a November article on the “physician shortage crisis,” the association recommended that Congress expand residency training programs and student loan assistance for medical students. They also called for increasing Medicare payments to doctors and providing more mental health accommodations for medical students.
More: Philadelphia medical school plans to pursue 'diverse workforce' through scholarships, special programs
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