Some pupils going abroad to study medicine, professor says
A fresh report reveals that despite a growing need for medical treatment by an exceedingly aging population, U.S. medical colleges are not producing much specialists.
The report” Why Do n’t U. S. Medical Schools Produce More Doctors”? blames” slow-walking” efforts by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association for admission growth.
In a recent email, writer Jay Greene, a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow and past professor at the University of Arkansas, claimed that foreign doctors are bridging the gap, but that there are also issues with doing that.
He told The Fix,” Health education and the medical program are heavily subsidized by citizens.” ” Those systems should n’t be denying Americans the opportunity they have abroad while also causing them to flee.”
According to his research,” about a fourth of foreign-trained “medical residents” are Americans who have been forced to travel abroad and have been rejected from private medical schools.
In relation, the review also found the number of overseas- educated specialists in the U. S. has “skyrocketed” in recent years. The proportion of physicians trained in the U. S. went from 91 percentage in 1981 to 75 percentage in 2024. However, the percentage of foreign- educated physicians went from 9 percent to 25 percent, according to the document.
The statement pointed back to 1980 when the U. S. “medical creation” expressed concerns about a glut of specialists. This led to the AMA and AAMC imposing membership limits that” could have remained in place until 2005.”
Despite loosening limitations, however, the level of doctors graduating from medical colleges rose just 34 cent between 2005 and 2024, according to the report.
” The net result of chilling and therefore slow- walking the growth of homeopathic medical schools is that today, 5 percent fewer M. D. s are produced each year per 100, 000 people in the U. S. than in 1981, declining from 6.07 fresh M. D. s per 100, 000 in the population in 1981 to 5.78 in 2024″, according to the report.
When The Fix contacted the AAMC and AMA, their representatives declined to comment on the findings of the report.
Reasons for the shortage
Additionally, the majority of medical organizations think there is a problem with the availability of physicians.
A large portion of physicians are approaching retirement age, according to an AAMC report from March.  , Physicians who are 65 and older were 17 percent of the active workforce in 2021, and those ages between 55 and 64 made up another 25 percent, according to the report.
In consequence, the AAMC predicts that “more than a third of physicians who are currently employed will retire within the next ten years.”
However, according to Greene’s report, the “number of residencies offered has increased faster than the domestic production of new doctors since 1981,” according to both AAMC and AMA, due to the lack of new residency opportunities.
Greene told The Fix that he thinks there are also other causes of the shortage.
According to him, placing a lot of emphasis on diversity objectives in medical schools makes it a lot harder for students who are n’t in preferred categories. ” This is causing many more qualified U. S. students to go overseas for their medical training, which is very inefficient and burdensome”.
He added that when choosing where American doctors work, cultural values should also be taken into account.
He told The Fix that “at some point the share of foreign doctors will start to resemble those of other nations more than the United States.”
” Healthcare is not a value-neutral occupation, and we should be careful to make sure that foreign-trained doctors are adopting American values and priorities rather than modifying them,” Greene said.
The number of physicians that are trained in American medical schools has long been up in arms.
According to a report from the American Enterprise Institute senior fellow James Capretta for the year 2020, the AAMC’s projected” shortfall” of up to 121, 000 physicians by 2032 is cautionary, according to medical associations’ prior concerns about the number of doctors in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Fix was recently contacted for comment by Capretta, who discovered that the ratio of doctors to Americans has increased by nearly 50 % since 1980. Still, the ratio is lower than other high- income countries like Germany, France, England, and Canada, his report found.
Solutions to the problem
Capretta’s report advocates for less government involvement in the” structure that controls the physician pipeline,” including state medical boards that “establish the criteria that must be met before physicians are issued licenses.” To address the shifting need for physicians, Capretta’s report recommends that state medical boards “establish the criteria that must be met before physicians are issued licenses.
Instead, the report recommends that medical schools “be able to be flexible and adaptable enough to respond to signals of increased patient demand for access to care.”
Meanwhile, Greene’s report pointed to the U. S. “accreditation cartel” as a key problem, saying it “has been limiting the creation and expansion of U. S. medical schools” and “is the primary cause of America’s shortage of domestically trained physicians”.
Congress could change the situation by “restor]ing ] control of higher education accreditation to the states”, according to Greene.
Other suggestions include granting accreditation to medical schools in Mexico and the Caribbean if they relocate or establish branches in the United States.
Additionally, the AMA has suggested suggestions for ways to train more doctors in the United States.
The association suggested that Congress expand residency training programs and student loan support for medical students in a November article about the “physician shortage crisis.” Additionally, it called for more medical insurance for doctors and more mental health services for medical students.
MORE: Philly med school will pursue’ diverse workforce ‘ through scholarships, special programs
IMAGE: New Africa/Shutterstock
Follow The College Fix on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
