The Physician Shortage

From the article, we learn that in the US, more is spent on healthcare than in any other nation, but still, citizens are less healthy compared to other high-income countries that spend less amount. Additionally, the number of physicians has reduced over the last 12 years. This shortage of physicians across the country has been attributed to other factors such as American diet and lifestyle, health care system incentives that have led to overuse and underuse of services, and inappropriate health outcome measurement. However, different measures have been introduced to help solve the physician shortage. These measures include increasing the number of physicians to meet the demand for care and increasing the number of physician assistants that offer primary care services, such as practical nurses.

Increasing the number of physicians to meet the demand for care and increasing the number of physician assistants that offer primary care services is expensive and will see the healthcare cost increase and diminish in the returns. The most appropriate measure to curb the physician shortage is to address the demand for health care services by controlling individual and group variables which are the top 10 causes of mortality in the US. Group variables targeting involves improving management and access to chronic disease services, using information and financial incentives, implementing health information technology, and improving care coordination. Individual variables targeting, on the other hand, involves individual determinants such as financial decisions, diet, exercise, and substance use. Legislators should consider strategic policy formulation to ensure that targeting individual and group variables is official and mandatory (Ahmed & Carmody, 2020).

References

Ahmed, H., & Carmody, J. B. (2020). On the Looming Physician Shortage and Strategic Expansion of Graduate Medical Education. Cureus, 12(7). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.9216

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The Physician Shortage

Read “The Physician Shortage: A Red Herring in American Health Care Reform,” by Corso, Dorrance, LaRochelle, and LaRochelle, from Military Medicine (2018).
What are your key takeaways in the article?