Politicians of both parties – and lots of voters – want to argue whether the glass is half full or half empty. They don’t talk about what’s in the glass.
This is especially true of candidates for the state legislature and Congress. They certainly don’t want voters to ask how the glass got half full or half empty. Mandated health insurance is a good example. Politicians divide us into tribal categories without telling us we’ll be short 90,000 physicians in just seven years (2025). Americans who want an abortion, or alternatively, pre-natal care, won’t have easy access to a doctor – for either service – even if they have insurance. Rural Americans will be hardest hit.
Universities understand supply and demand. They turn out MBAs like jelly beans and there’s a law school across the street from every Dollar General store. That’s because these students are sources of revenue.
But the same isn’t true for medical students. The University of Arkansas Medical School has 2,210 applicants every year but graduates only 117 new doctors annually – about 5.5 percent of the people who want to be doctors. The University of Minnesota’s Medical School has 4,473 applicants annually and graduates 238 doctors (5.5 percent). Across all US medical schools, only 6 percent of applicants end up as graduates.
One reason so few candidates get into medical school is that unlike MBA or law instruction, it’s expensive to train doctors, and medical schools simply lack the resources to accept all qualified applicants. Another critical problem is the lack of residencies at teaching hospitals. That’s because Medicare, which covers the costs of training residents, capped internships in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 – another gift of the Clinton Administration.
Unless newly-elected Congressional representatives vote to lift the 1997 cap, and until state legislators vote to adequately fund medical schools and mandate their capacity to train more doctors, Americans will have long waits and longer drives to see a doctor regardless of the reason or means of payment.
This glass isn’t half or half. It’s a system problem politicians are too gutless to solve because it means raising taxes for money that doesn’t trickle up to fat cats and corporations.
THAT was really interesting and informative. Thank you. I would still like my glass half full WITHOUT worrying about the arm of government up my you know what.
Another great comment by the wizard who identifies real issues that otherwise get swept under the rug.