Will Obamacare/Doctor shortage increase chance of admissions?

[MansaMusa31]

Hello fellow SDNers,

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to put this thread but I think it is pretty relevant to the chances of people getting into medical school.

I have been reading a bunch of articles from credible news sources (http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/02/health/obamacare-doctor-shortage/index.html) and speaking to attending physicians and they have all been repeating the same theme : Bigtime doctor shortage, we need more healthcare professionals.

Now I am using my inference skills (the same ones that helped me blow the Verbal section out of the water ) and I think Medical Schools would slightly increase the amount of acceptances as a way to ameliorate the healthcare crisis occurring. Please correct me if I am wrong and please feel free to share your opinion on the topic.

Small Caveat: If you have read the Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he touches base on there being certain eras and time periods where people have an advantage of getting into a particular field i.e (ppl born in the 1950s who were 20 in the 1970s gained an advantage in the comp industry Like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs). Maybe this one of those times where ppl applying within the next few days have a slightly easier time getting accepted to medical school in comparison to recent years.

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[mcloaf]

There are like 5 million threads about this in pre-allo, if you'd care to look them up.

Basically it distills down to two things:

1. The bottleneck in the physician training pathway is at residency spots, not medical school seats. Increasing medical school seats with everything else staying the same will only lead to more unmatched graduates.

2. The issue is less an overall shortage than a geographic (people want to live in more urban areas) and specialty (fewer graduates are interested in primary care fields) maldistribution of doctors.

 

[MansaMusa31]

There are like 5 million threads about this in pre-allo, if you'd care to look them up.

Basically it distills down to two things:

1. The bottleneck in the physician training pathway is at residency spots, not medical school seats. Increasing medical school seats with everything else staying the same will only lead to more unmatched graduates.

2. The issue is less an overall shortage than a geographic (people want to live in more urban areas) and specialty (fewer graduates are interested in primary care fields) maldistribution of doctors.

Mcloaf,

Thank you for your response. I did read a bunch of those posts but they pertain to the sociological aspect of it, not necessarily the effect Oabamacare will have on medical school admissions. If there are such threads where that information is presented, please share the link.

To address your points: 1. I definitely understand the issue of residency seats and medical school spots but there is a slight excess of the number of residency spots that are filled in by foreigners each year. US Medical Schools can increase admission, in turn decreasing the amount of foreigners that can receive residencies in the US to neutralize the bottleneck effect.

2. Medical schools maybe could select more applicants that have a resume that resemble someone who may be interested in primary care residencies. Although I acknowledge for adcoms to gauge if a person will actually decide on doing a residency after 4 years of MD school, it is possible to ATTEMPT to accept more students that will be interested in primary care residencies.

 

[CarlosDanger]

What you were describing is separate from issues that relate to Obamacare, which has not been fully implemented yet. First, let me just say bluntly that medical school admissions will not get less competitive. Who knows what will happen in 100 years - maybe we will all live on the moon and will need to train extra moon doctors. Until then, expect MCAT scores/GPA averages to stay the same or increase. To address your points:

1.) The extra residency spots filled by IMGs every year are in primary care, because American graduates don't want those spots. They are lower paid and in less desirable locations like McLoaf pointed out. This number of "extra spots" is shrinking every year and will be completely gone in a few years (maybe 10). Med schools have been increasing enrollment and opening new schools for a few years now. Its already happened/happening.

2. Schools already do this. New schools are started every year for the express purpose (at least they say) of creating more primary care doctors. DO schools do this very well too.

 

[Goro]

Only if the number of seats increases.

Hello fellow SDNers,

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to put this thread but I think it is pretty relevant to the chances of people getting into medical school.

I have been reading a bunch of articles from credible news sources (http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/02/health/obamacare-doctor-shortage/index.html) and speaking to attending physicians and they have all been repeating the same theme : Bigtime doctor shortage, we need more healthcare professionals.

Now I am using my inference skills (the same ones that helped me blow the Verbal section out of the water ) and I think Medical Schools would slightly increase the amount of acceptances as a way to ameliorate the healthcare crisis occurring. Please correct me if I am wrong and please feel free to share your opinion on the topic.

Small Caveat: If you have read the Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he touches base on there being certain eras and time periods where people have an advantage of getting into a particular field i.e (ppl born in the 1950s who were 20 in the 1970s gained an advantage in the comp industry Like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs). Maybe this one of those times where ppl applying within the next few days have a slightly easier time getting accepted to medical school in comparison to recent years.

 

[khrisskhoras]

Why does this matter? No point in going to med school n e more. Physician pay is going down with Barry's new health law

 

[MansaMusa31]

Why does this matter? No point in going to med school n e more. Physician pay is going down with Barry's new health law

Not to be cliche but medicine is definitely not the field to be going into if you're looking for a big payday. You're better off doing stock options or getting into engineering.