Simple S and D

I uncovered a nice Supply and Demand problem in the following New York Times article today:

"Shortage of Doctors an Obstacle..."

The article explains the lack of supply of shortage of Doctors currently in the United States and the growing number of baby boomers who are getting older and in need of health services.

Doctors are not becoming physicians or practicing Medicare services due to the lack of pay. Also, since medical school is so expensive, most doctors specialize. There is a demand for physicians, but a lack of incentive to be a physician due to low pay.

One answer, proposed by several people is too increase Medical School enrollment. Personally, I do not want a check up from a B or C average-student, but hey, grade inflation has occurred everywhere else in college, why not Med-School?

I love this part of the article, "Under a far-reaching 2006 law, the state (Massachusetts) succeeded in reducing the number of uninsured. But many who gained coverage have been struggling to find primary care doctors, and the average waiting time for routine office visits has increased."

So a state has attempted a more, "universal health model." The result, more waiting, and more demand for doctors who are not there. No problem, we have an example not too follow in creating a new health system........I bet politicians don't see it this way.

So putting 2 and 2 together, we should give health care to everyone, then we will all have to drive many miles, wait many hours, or both in order to be helped, minimally. To fix it, lets increase the number of doctors or subsidize Med-School costs so we can have third tier students examining us on a regular basis....There has to be a better way.

Looking at the state of Massachusetts example, I think the problem of high demand and low supply of doctors should be solved in a different manner. Possibly substituting some capital for labor.........Can a machine or system such as Cook County Hospitals for diagnosing heart problems help this supply and demand problem?

From Blink by Malcolm Gladwell "One of the stories I tell in "Blink" is about the Emergency Room doctors at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. That's the big public hospital in Chicago, and a few years ago they changed the way they diagnosed heart attacks. They instructed their doctors to gather less information on their patients: they encouraged them to zero in on just a few critical pieces of information about patients suffering from chest pain--like blood pressure and the ECG--while ignoring everything else, like the patient's age and weight and medical history. And what happened? Cook County is now one of the best places in the United States at diagnosing chest pain.