The politics of subsidies for teaching hospitals.
A bipartisan group of four Senators (Bill Cassidy, Catherine Cortez Masto, Michael Bennet, and John Cornyn) recently introduced a bill to expand Medicare payments for Graduate Medical Education (GME). They argue this legislation is needed to address physician shortages, which are concentrated in primary care and rural communities.
But there is no overall shortage in medical residencies. The reluctancy of new physicians to practice in underserved communities in fact owes much to the existence of GME subsidies, which require residents to be trained in big city academic centers. These supplemental payments were originally designed to secure the support of the nation’s most expensive hospitals for Medicare reforms, rather than to increase the supply of the nation’s physicians.
After 4 years of medical school, graduates undertake a 3 to 7 year medical residency (depending on the specialty), where they work as apprentices to experienced clinicians – typically in a hospital setting.
Continue reading the entire piece here at RealClearHealth
______________________
Chris Pope is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
Photo by GeorgeRudy/Getty Images