Doctor Shortage Research Paper

Americas Doctor shortage.
The Problem: The U.S. is experiencing a shortage of doctors and expected to get worse in the next 10 years. According to Association of American Medical College(AAMC) the U.S. will face a shortage of physicians between the amount 46,100 and 90,000 and another 12,500 to 31,000 primary care physicians by the year 2025. The Affordable Care Act is expected to accelerate this rate specially because the baby boomers are getting old. With their aging comes complex conditions like arthritis, high blood pressure, pulmonary disease, diabetes, and cancer. These conditions will require a lot of medical attention. So, the problem is that not enough doctors are produced to keep up with the changing demographic that will change over the next ten years.

The Cause of the Shortage:

Currently hospitals train between 27,000 to 29,000 doctors at annually cost of $152,000 via the Medicare program. But some argue that most doctors are clustered in cities leaving rural and poor Americans critically underserved. And another reason is finical reason, doctors who choose to specialize will make more money in the millions than a primary care physicians. One reason why finical is the cause is student debt, an average medical student debt can build up to around $180,000 by the end of medical school. And on the other hand, a primary doctor will take years to pay back their student debt and what makes it worse is the interest rate that builds over the years. These are some factors that will cause shortage of doctors in the