Health Care Crisis - Shortage of Doctors

The Wall Street Journal (Wall Street Journal On-line Report) reports that The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors.

Experts warn there won't be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

That shortfall is predicted despite a push by teaching hospitals and medical schools to boost the number of U.S. doctors, which now totals about 954,000.

The greatest demand will be for primary-care physicians. These general practitioners, internists, family physicians and pediatricians will have a larger role under the new law, coordinating care for each patient.

The U.S. has 352,908 primary-care doctors now, and the college association estimates that 45,000 more will be needed by 2020. But the number of medical-school students entering family medicine fell more than a quarter between 2002 and 2007.

A shortage of primary-care and other physicians could mean more-limited access to health care and longer wait times for patients.

MyAchingKnees.com thinks that the shortage of Doctors isn't necessary such a bad omen across the board. It should force people to take a more proactive approach to their health, becoming their own primary physicians - after all Doctors are mostly "Disease Care Professionals" rather than "Health Care oriented". There are certainly major medical problems that only Doctors and their access to diagnostics
and drugs can treat. However, we should do all we can do, beginning with education, to limit our need to see Doctors. It includes a healthy lifestyle and nutrition.

Another good site to visit for health related and home remedies topics are:

http://www.losing-weight-and-the-glycemic-index.com/

http://www.homeremediesandnutrition.com/