Believe it, or Not !
For all of you disgruntled curmudgeon senior physicians telling your offspring not to go into medicine, listen up ! Get your facts straight ! And don’t listen to me, I was wrong ! What was I thinking?
According to Forbes Magazine;
“The number of students applying to medical school rose again this year with applications up 3.1 percent in what a new report described as “healthy gains” in interest in the medical profession.
The Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents the nation’s medical schools and teaching hospitals,said more than 45,000 students applied to attend medical school this year.Meanwhile, first-time applicants, which AAMC executives say is “considered to be a barometer of interest in medicine” set yet another record, increasing 3.4 percent to 33,772 applicants”
Five Obama care Winners In Second Presidential Term
With the re-election of President Obama, 30 million Americans without health insurance are certainly winners because they will in less than 14 months have access to medical coverage without the threat of a Romney White House pushing for repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Those in the health industry providing the benefits and services will also be victorious as an unprecedented number of paying customers who have struggled to pay for everything from a hip replacement surgery to prescription drugs get support to buy medical care.
five key winners as the health law’s benefits bring new paying customers in the doors of clinics, hospitals, pharmacies and doctors offices across the country:
1. The health insurance industry. Health plans like Aetna (AET), WellPoint (WLP), Humana (HUM), and others that have acquired a bigger stake in providing benefits to Medicaid patients will certainly reap millions of new customers. About half of the 30 million uninsured will gain access to an expanded Medicaid program. Meanwhile, all commercial health insurance plans including UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Humana (HUM) and the nation’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans are already aggressively promoting their brands in the individual and small group market to prepare for broader sales of these policies on state-run exchanges that will begin operating in 2014.
2. The hospital industry. Hospitals will have much less to worry about when it comes to the annual $40 billion tab for unpaid medical bills and charity known as uncompensated care. In particular, investor-owned hospital chains like HCA Holdings(HCA); Tenet Healthcare (THC) and Vanguard Health Systems (VHS) will also win political cover in Washington and in the communities in which they operate where their commitment to charity care has long been called into question.
3. The retail pharmacy chains. From Walgreen (WAG) and CVS/Caremark (CVS) to Wal-Mart (WMT), these chains have pushed beyond simply filling prescriptions into becoming, as Walgreen CEO Greg Wasson says, the home for all of a consumer’s “health and daily living needs.” Given the influx of patients with a pent up demand for health care services, retailers’ efforts to provide more flu shots and other vaccinations through clinics staffed by nurse practitioners will help serve an expected spike in demand for these services from the newly insured.
4. The generic drug industry. Though health insurance companies worry about their ability to control the cost of new customers, they are expected to aggressively push outpatient care and low-cost prescription drugs as a way to keep premiums low. That means generic drugs will have an even more promising spot on health plan preferred lists known as formularies. This will be a windfall for companies like Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA).
5. The health care workforce. From nurses and doctors to health roles some say have yet to be invented, more workers beyond physicians will be needed to meet future medical needs, particularly in the outpatient care area. Already, universities and their medical schools, nursing colleges and schools of public health and pharmacy are expanding departments or creating new programs to address future health care needs. All are expected to benefit from increased federal investments in education. Philanthropic organizations, too, are expected to compliment these efforts. Just last month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a long-time advocate for nursing and nurse education, announced its budget for 2013 that will include up to $425 million in grant-making focused on helping “people stay healthy; lowering national health care costs; and improving access to high-quality care, delivered by a diverse and abundant workforce.” “Whatever issues are the most vexing—responding to AIDS, an unprecedented shortage of nurses, millions of children being uninsured, astounding racial inequalities in health care—these are the issues we’ve taken on,” said foundation president, Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey.
In fact the greatest growth in patient care will be in the outpatient arena, where new professional designations will sprout as medical schools design new curriculum to educate and train health professionals.
Facing unprecedented change in how medical care will be delivered to more Americans, the American Medical Association said it will provide $10 million toward efforts to transform medical education for tomorrow’s physicians.
American Medical Association president Dr. Jeremy Lazarus said the doctor group will provide $10 million toward efforts to transform graduate medical education for tomorrow’s physicians.
In order to help accomplish these goals;
The nation’s largest doctor group is providing the money over the next five years to fund “8 to 10 projects.
However, despite these hopeful items, there is still reticence in the eyes of the physician trainee workforce.
Despite improving pay and the critical role primary care physicians will play in the future of health care in the U.S., there remains less interest by doctors-in-training in general medicine than specialty disciplines.
The December 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showing a small percentage of medical residents plan to practice general internal medicine comes as a physician shortage looms and millions of uninsured Americans with a pent up demand for primary medical care are poised to flood doctors’ offices once they gain coverage 13 months from now under the Affordable Care Act signed into law two years ago by President Obama.
If nothing else the next five to ten years will prove interesting with challenges and accomplishments.
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