And it is an idea that will, in no way, shape, or form, accomplish what they desire to accomplish. The federal government has wrecked provider pay and overcomplicated the past dream of being a self-employed physician. Only a few specialties pay worth a shit anymore, and, except gastroenterology and otolaryngology, the ones that still do pay well are stupid stressful.
The idea here is that by giving away medical school, new physicians will choose low paying specialties such as family medicine, internal medicine, and rural medicine because they won't have the pressure of paying back that $200k school debt. Ummm, no they won't. Why would they? Until the federal government and, even more so, private insurers loosen their grip on provider payments, the number of primary care providers will continue to shrink. This will come to a head, and the CMS & payors will be forced to relent, only when the wait times for patients to see primary care providers becomes exceedingly long. That will not be very far into the future either.
The idea here is that by giving away medical school, new physicians will choose low paying specialties such as family medicine, internal medicine, and rural medicine because they won't have the pressure of paying back that $200k school debt. Ummm, no they won't. Why would they? Until the federal government and, even more so, private insurers loosen their grip on provider payments, the number of primary care providers will continue to shrink. This will come to a head, and the CMS & payors will be forced to relent, only when the wait times for patients to see primary care providers becomes exceedingly long. That will not be very far into the future either.
