August 9, 2021

Are we licensing enough doctors?

Let's assume for a moment that we'll need more doctors than we now have due to aging demographics and the incidence of chronic disease in America. Are we licensing enough doctors to keep up with demand? Well, we know we're not licensing all the medical school graduates.

"Match Day" is when medical school graduates are matched with available residencies at hospitals across the United States. The March 2021 Match Day resulted in 2,200 graduates from U.S. medical schools going without an assignment. In additional, 2,143 U.S. citizens who have graduated from foreign medical schools were not matched, along with 5,730 non-U.S. citizens. April 14, 2021 article in Medical Economics

Congress voted to fund 1,000 more residencies through CMS over the next five years. That's the first increase in CMS funding since 1997. Really?