Medical Schools Expand As Economy Continues To Tank
Despite the severe economic downturn, medical school expansion plans are ever increasing, even in the battered home of the nation’s struggling auto industry, as new schools are opening or under development from El Paso in West Texas to Kalamazoo in western Michigan, the Associated Press reported.
Experts say this is happening because Americans are living longer and there are more of them.
"It’s clear that the demographics of American society point to the need of having and expanding a well-educated medical work force," said Dr. J. James Rohack, a Temple, Texas, cardiologist.
Poor and rural areas already face doctor shortages, and primary care positions are being left unfilled as doctors gravitate to higher-paying medical specialties.
The number of accredited medical schools training doctors in the U.S. is set to grow by four to 130 this year alone. Five others have applied for accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, with the aim of accepting students in 2010 or 2011.
Medical school ranks in Michigan, where unemployment jumped to 11.6 percent in January, could go from three today to six within a few years.
William Beaumont Hospital, in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, is collaborating with Oakland University in Rochester on a new medical school that would accept its first class in 2010.
Michigan State University is expanding its medical school programs at a new campus in Grand Rapids, as well as in Detroit and Macomb County’s Clinton Township. Central and Western Michigan universities are well along in planning medical schools of their own. Wayne State University has significantly expanded its medical school enrollment, while the University of Michigan has kept its enrollment steady.
Robert G. Miller, associate vice president at Western Michigan University, said pushing plans for a new medical school even as Michigan’s auto-based economy sputters isn’t as crazy as it might seem.
Miller said the board at his Kalamazoo school would start advanced planning on a new medical school in January.
"It’s many years out. There’s enough support in the community and enough assets to move forward," he said.
Healthcare in the U.S. accounts for $2.4 trillion in annual business, or about $8,000 for each of the nation’s 300 million residents.
The Obama administration has pledged to make overhauling health care – extending coverage to the 48 million uninsured while fighting rising costs and attacking waste – an early priority.
Experts blamed rising health costs on what they said were a surplus of doctors a quarter century ago, as doctors seeking income would perform unneeded procedures, making medical care more expensive. Medical schools began capping or cutting enrollments as a response.
Some doctors and medical school groups in recent years have re-examined the issue of doctor supply and now warn of a large shortfall in coming decades.
Last year, the Association of American Medical Colleges said that if current demand and supply patterns continue, the U.S. will have about 750,000 doctors by 2025 – about 159,000 fewer than it needs. The group suggested the shortage would be particularly acute for primary care doctors.
An increase in recruiting of minority group students more likely to practice in underserved areas has been recommended by the medical school group, which also called for adding 1,500 spots each year to the National Health Service Corps, which finances training for medical students who work in underserved areas after graduation.
Statistics show that nationwide enrollments are already increasing.
Last year, accredited schools accepted 18,036 new medical students, up 9.1 percent from 16,538 in 2003. The number of students applying for admission rose 21.4 percent in that period, from 34,786 to 42,231.
However, expanding medical school enrollment could spell another significant concern. The AMA said coming up with the $200,000 per year it takes to train new doctors during their three- to seven-year residencies.
Rohack said that while the federal Medicare program has financed residencies since 1965, the government capped the number of positions in 1997 at about 98,000. The actual number of residents has risen since then, with hospitals financing the extra slots through stopgap measures, he added.
"If we can take the cap off … then American society will be better served," he said. "Most societies that are successful tend to have healthy populations."
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