Introduction
I have been asked to consider the issues of provider supply and will explain if there are such issues. I have also explained the likely long-term impact of the influx of IMGs into the healthcare system. Along with all this I have explained the reason for the lack of minority representation in the U.S. health profession such a compelling problem for our health policy makers. A conclusion follows that with my own thoughts and views.
Issues with Provider Supply
While managed care decreases hospital use, it increases the use of physicians. Size and composition of the physician workforce has been troubled since the twenty-first century came about. This includes both health professionals and policymakers in particular because of the transformation of the health care delivery system. For the last fifteen years there has been an over supply of physicians. Most of the over supply is made up of non primary care specialists. On the primary care physician side there has been either a shortage or a relative balance. There was a total of 308,487 active physicians which is a ratio of 151.4 (physicians) per 100,000 people in 1970. According to the National Academy of Sciences (1996), "GMENAC concluded that the nation could expect to have a surplus of physicians in the future (not a shortage) and that the surplus would grow from 70,000 physicians in 1990 to 145,000 by the year 2000. Looked at another way, for the past two decades the U.S. physician supply grew at one and one-half times the rate of growth of the general population. Clearly, by the mid-1990s, the nation was well on its way to surpassing the GMENAC predictions."
The United S ...