Congressional Bill to add 15,000 residency spots, 2/3 in primary care.

[Octagonecology]

I was just wondering how the FM crowd felt about this bill. Is it a good thing, or a bad thing? I was under the impression that many FM slots go unfilled each year anyway. Wouldn't this funding be better spent at increasing reimbursements for FM docs?

I think that more residency spots would simply be occupied by more FMG's seeing as, how another SDNer put it, it's better than driving a cab.

http://www.im.org/PolicyAndAdvocacy.../BillWouldIncreaseResidencySlotsby15,000.aspx

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[deleted87716]

91% of FM positions were filled in the Match this year. Most of the remaining slots likely filled during the scramble.

If coupled with incentives that help drive students into primary care, more residency positions will be crucial to expanding the physician workforce.

Even so, there won't be enough of us to go around in the near term if we end up with a Massachusetts-like situation where suddenly, overnight, everybody in the country gets government-funded insurance coverage but can't find a doctor or can't get an appointment with one for three months.