Making sense of the healthcare debate

by Kent Bottles "Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words." - Baruch Spinoza. The most depressing aspect of the debate about the transformation of the American healthcare system is how liberals and conservatives talk past each other. It is hard not to get frustrated when zealots on both sides of the aisle refuse to listen to each other and refuse to learn from each other. The "ObamaCare 2016: Happy Yet?" op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week serves as a prime example of an unbalanced and unfair attack on the Affordable Care Act. Bradley Allen, a pediatric heart surgeon, blames the ACA for the following: Physicians discouraging their children from going to medical school The rise of expensive concierge medicine The decline of private practice The increase of physicians working for integrated delivery systems The shortage of physicians The fact that all of these problems were plaguing the healthcare system long before the ACA was passed is completely ignored by the author. Many of my conservative friends told me the ACA is making medical school unattractive for smart young people and that less qualified students will apply for admission. So far, the facts do not support this conclusion. The average acceptance rate at U.S. medical programs for fall 2012 was only 8.3 percent, according to data reported by 114 ranked medical schools in an annual U.S. News survey. Medical school applicatio...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs