To address the shortage of doctors and the incentives that compel young doctors to eschew primary care, Congress needs to think about how to increase doctor pay, institute malpractice reform, and provide subsidies to reduce the amount of debt doctors have to take on. Residency caps should also be raised so teaching hospitals can train more doctors. Without these actions new doctors would be foolish to enter primary care, and thankfully our medical schools do not recruit foolish people. (Herb Pardes, CEO New York Presbyterian Hospital)
The suggested interventions are not mutually exclusive, and movement on any of them will decrease the need for the others. If you reform malpractice and lower debt, doctor’s pay will increase as less income is funneled off to insurance premiums and interest payments.
(HT Howard Luks via Val Jones)
Perhaps we should look at the German model: no school debt, pay decent but not excessive, national health care provided both publically and privately as a capped %age of income,, physicians who still make house calls and are happy, world class health care…
Spiraling school costs are only one, but a very important issue in post secondary education. Recently my mother sent me an article about the shortage of lawyers to assist the poor with foreclosure and predatory lending issues. What I e-mailed back to her is that with school costs topping $60K per year (at least at my alma mater, Cornell), I can't imagine who could afford to help the poor, much less the middle class. The government has pulled out of subsidizing lawyers, and is subsidizing teaching hospital at an alarmingly low rate. Either the debt/cost must decrease or the salary must increase. I prefer it on the front end, like much of Europe. There is no reason for the skyrocketing cost of education.