Primary Care Issue Analysis

The United States has prided itself for many years on the health care system which ranks highly in treatments of many diseases, cancers, and conditions. However, problems are emerging with the ever expanding healthcare sector and the industry cannot keep up. At the beginning of this year, CNN chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta wrote about the nine largest health issues in the United States. One of the topics was the simple lack of Doctors and healthcare professionals in the United States. This concern is shared with Health Resources and Services Administration, which state that between the years of 2010 and 2020, there will be an 81 percent increase in the demand of primary care practitioners. Some of the findings of the study to project the supply and demand of primary care practitioners conclude that,
“Without changes to how primary care is delivered, the growth in primary care physician supply will not be adequate to meet demand in 2020, with a
Gupta points to the residency cap as one of the primary causes for the shortage and he is correct as the cap has affected medical students for decades. Medical schools are forced from expanding because the number of applicants for residency positions are already exceeding the number of positions actually available. The cause for this cap, that has been in place for over a decade, is of course money. The doctor shortage this year is estimated to be around 63,000 with the rate estimated to train a doctor being around $150,000; the financial burden would be $9 billion. This may not seem like much but Medicare itself only has a budget of $525 billion overall. The people affected by this problem is clear, everyone. Doctors are burning themselves out, often coming into work sick, and the patients are having to wait longer to receive primary care. The importance of primary care cannot be overstated as early detection has been proven to be the most important factor in the treatment of almost every major