American Medical News
December 24/31, 2001
Number of applications to medical schools:
1996-1997 school year – 46,968 2001-2002 school year – 34,859
“Experts cite loss of physician autonomy and the high cost of medical education as two reasons for the decline.”
Comment: Opponents to national health insurance frequently claim that adoption of a program of government insurance would result in a decline in the number of qualified applicants for medical school. If the number of qualified applicants is to be used as a parameter of the quality of our system, then it is quite clear that we can no longer accept the status quo.
It probably is true that individuals who place the highest value on the opportunity to maximize income may not be attracted to a system in which compensation is adequate but not excessive. But then our health care system is not well served by those individuals that continually manipulate the system to maximize profit.
We would better be served by individuals that maximize the dignity and value of human life, and who are quite content to practice medicine in an environment in which the medical decisions lie within the physician-patient partnership, while financial decisions are removed from the day-to-day medical considerations.
A publicly administered program of universal health insurance would assure potential physicians of a favorable practice environment and adequate compensation, thereby assuring the rest of us that there will always be a generous pool of qualified medical school applicants.