According to CIA.gov in 2011 the United States had 2.45 physicians per 1,000 citizens. The United States is home to arguably the smartest and best trained doctors in the world. These doctors have access to cutting edge medical technology and training. But America has fewer doctors per capita than such healthcare power houses as Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Latvia. That is right, Latvia; it is north of Poland and Lithuania and due west from Moscow. (I had to look it up, thank you Google Maps)
So now you are wondering: Wait, I live in America, the greatest nation in the world, and I am more likely to find a doctor available in Latvia? I had the same thought; the problem is that we have a limited number of residencies in our country.
Graduates from medical schools have to go through a year-long residency to obtain an unrestricted license to practice medicine in many jurisdictions. Most residencies are funded by Medicare in the U.S. and there have been very few increases in the amount funded since Congress froze the number in 1997 as part of the Balanced Budget Act.
According to an article in the Washington Post it costs about $145,000 to train a doctor and would cost about $9.1 billion to fix the 63,000 doctor shortage. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges the U.S. will face a shortage of 90,000 doctors by 2025. Add to these facts that by 2025 nearly one quarter of the U.S. population will be 65 and older and the impact of this problem only worsens. The majority of people who live beyond 65 years old begin to suffer from multiple chronic health issues. The issue becomes one of supply and demand; there simply will not be enough doctors to manage the demand produced by the aging population unless we begin to make changes now.
Congress has the ability to solve this issue through various proposals. We could aggressively recruit foreign doctors who wish to come to America but have had issues with visas and citizenship. These are doctors that we would not have to train or pay to get trained, only get the system out of their way so they can show up and start helping. We can also develop more programs to offset the costs of medical school by subsidized federal student loans that can be offset by service in underserved areas. Are you a medical student who is covered in debt? Well if you commit to a residency and three additional years in rural wherever that needs medical help, you walk away after four years as a full doctor and with no medical school bills.
These kinds of simple, easy-to-implement solutions are not the only ones that are available to us. Many doctors and medical students have lobbied Congress to help them and to help America in the process, but no luck so far. We have to make this a national effort to find new solutions and to enact them before we are all waiting in line to see the doctor — or making travel plans to Latvia to see one. I hear it is nice there this time of year.
Michael D. Tipsword is a master of health administration candidate at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
