SCRANTON TIMES-TRIBUNE Editorial: …After graduation from medical school, doctors serve medical residencies of up to seven years, depending upon their specialties. Medicare funds 94,000 residencies at teaching hospitals, at a cost of about $9.4 billion a year, and Medicaid funds about 10,000 more at other institutions.
Now a number of factors are converging to create a shortage of medical residencies, rather than of doctors to fill them. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the number of graduating physicians will exceed the number of available residencies by the end of this decade. The squeeze already has begun. A record 1,097 graduates were not matched with residencies this year, a 29 percent increase over 2012.
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 froze the number of medical residencies. But since then, the U.S. population has grown from 267.7 million to 315.7 million. People also are living longer, and older people need more health care than younger people. Next year, the Affordable Health Care Act is scheduled to be fully implemented, expanding the number of people with health insurance and, therefore, demand for medical services… (more)
