Are We About To Face A Severe Doctor Shortage?
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by John Goodman,
“No, there won’t be a doctor shortage,” wrote Zeke Emanuel and Scott Gottlieb in The New York Times the other day.
ObamaCare will weather that challenge just fine. How? Nurses and other paramedic personnel can substitute for physicians and new technology is making remote monitoring of patients easier than ever before.
All that is true. But those changes are likely to happen slowly; and even if they happened quickly, I’m afraid that it won’t be enough.
Here’s why. Two features of ObamaCare will substantially increase the demand, while (surprisingly) nothing in the law increases supply. And when people take steps to increase their access in response to growing waiting times, the success of some will increase the rationing problems for everyone else.
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