SAN ANTONIO – The U.S. is facing a doctor shortage crisis, as the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) says by 2036 the country will face a shortage of 86,000 physicians.
Dr. Rodney Young, MD board member with the Texas Medical Association, said Texas has taken steps to be better prepared than most states, but the population growth is hindering.
“We’re graduating more doctors for medical school than we ever have in Texas. But we’re also having so many new residents in the state that while we’re making headway, it’s just not been enough to fully alleviate those concerns,” he said.
Rodney said state lawmakers have allocated state funding to open up residency spots. They’ve expedited the process for licensed doctors from other states to get a license in Texas, and have created a protection from severe malpractice concerns.
The bottom line it comes down to the lack of funding to help physicians complete the last part of their education, or the residency programs.
Dr. Atul Grover with AAMC said there’s still a strong interest in the medical field, as medical school enrollment has expanded by 30-35 percent over the past 15 years. The bottleneck is in the number of residency programs available.
“The challenge is, every year we probably have around 40,000 or so applicants, for about 35,000 spots,” he said.
Specialty trainings are also getting more difficult to fill he said, as orthopedic surgery, vascular surgery, oncology, and neurology are all fields that will become harder to access for patients in the future.
Historically, a large portion of the funding to support residency funding comes from Medicare, but in the 1990′s a cap was put on that, Grover said. Since then, states, hospitals and even insurance companies have chipped in to support more residency programs.
“We cannot keep up unless Congress actually lifts the freeze that they’ve had on support for training residents that period after medical school that people have to go through for 3 to 8 years to actually become competent to practice in their specialty,” Grover said.
Last year the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2023 was introduced, it would fund 14,000 residency positions nationwide over the next seven years.
Grover urges taxpayers to contact their elected representative in support of the bill. Here’s a link to find your federal representatives, just type in your zip code.