For 25 years, American medical schools kept their enrollment flat at 16,000 new enrollees each year, while the country's population increased by over 70 million. The schools were following the advice of several national advisory groups, including the Institute of Medicine and the Council on Graduate Medical Education that with managed health care, there will be a glut of physicians.
What compounds the medical problem is the pending retirement of baby boomers which will hit the issue two ways. One is the rising number of elder American requiring medical attention, and the other is that a large number of doctors, around 250,000, belong to this generation.
With the high cost of medical education, estimated at $150,000 to $240,00, many new graduates opt for better paying specialties like bariatric or orthopedic surgery over general surgery and family medicine.
Aside from financial reasons, another reason behind the lesser preference for time consuming practice like general surgery is the premium place by doctors on their free time. Josef Fischer, chairman of surgery at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, observed, "My generation neglected our families. We neglected our children. We were always operating... This current generation, much to their credit, says, 'We're not going to do that.'"
The medical personnel shortage is also felt in the nursing profession. To address this shortage, the U.S. is allowing a large number of foreign trained nurses who pass the the National Commission on Licensure Exams test to secure work visas and subsequently even acquire citizenship to fill in the manpower shortage.
