| Signs are pointing to a coming physician shortage in | | | | Physician search firm Merritt, Hawkins & |
| America. With the headaches that will bring, universal | | | | Associates says it already takes an average 24 days |
| care should be the last hardship the government hangs | | | | for U.S. patients to see a dermatologist for a routine |
| around our necks. | | | | skin cancer checkup. And that's in our biggest cities, |
| The Los Angeles Times has reported that the | | | | not rural areas. Waiting times are similar for |
| "Demand for doctors is accelerating more rapidly than | | | | gynecologists (23 days) and cardiologists (19). Universal |
| supply." The results will be - and already are in some | | | | care will only make these and other waits longer. |
| places - frustrating: longer waiting periods to see | | | | America's doctor shortage doesn't lend itself to a |
| physicians, particularly specialists; more trips to see a | | | | public policy solution. It's largely demographic: As baby |
| doctor; and decisions by many to simply forgo care. | | | | boomers retire in record numbers - and likely get sick |
| Sounds a lot like Canada's nationalized health care | | | | in record numbers as well - doctors within the baby |
| system. | | | | boom cohort also will be retiring. By 2020, the U.S. |
| Canadian health care, held up by many as the model | | | | could be short 90,000 to 200,000 doctors, Merritt, |
| the U.S. should adopt, is a disaster largely because of | | | | Hawkins estimates. |
| the enormous demand it has created. Consequently, | | | | That means even longer hours for younger doctors, at |
| Canadians are suffering through a pandemic of poor | | | | least those who haven't been run out of the |
| health care at a time when technology should be | | | | profession by excessive malpractice insurance |
| helping them live much longer and healthier lives than | | | | premiums fueled by outrageous malpractice lawsuits |
| could have been imagined a generation ago. | | | | and jury awards. |
| North of the border, unreasonably long waiting periods | | | | Medical schools want to boost enrollment in response |
| are the cause of much suffering - even death. Drugs | | | | to the low supply. But as long as the financial incentives |
| and modern medical equipment that most Americans | | | | of the profession are clipped by sue-happy trial |
| take for granted are in short supply. Hospitals are | | | | lawyers, runaway juries and obliging courts, the |
| overcrowded, and doctors and nurses, fed up with it all, | | | | shortage is unlikely to self-correct. |
| are quitting. | | | | What are you to do? Take health care into your own |
| Blame a system under which a third party (the | | | | hands of course. Try homeopathic or nutritional |
| government, using tax dollars), pays for health care, | | | | supplementation. Thus, eliminating the expensive cost |
| thereby stimulating demand. When someone else pays | | | | of health care, time needed to see a doctor and the |
| the bill, people will consume more health care than if | | | | overall problem of even getting sick. |
| they were paying for it themselves. This is common | | | | An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. |
| sense. With demand artificially ratcheted up, the | | | | Take control of your health today. The health & |
| system cannot provide enough services to keep up. | | | | wellness industry is expected to be a "Trillion Dollar |
| Such a system is unsustainable. So why force a similar | | | | Industry" by 2010. Supplementation use is growing |
| one on the U.S. when there aren't enough doctors now | | | | and being fueled significantly by baby boomers. Now |
| to keep up with the growing demand for medical | | | | is the time to get on board the prevention and |
| services? | | | | wellness industry. |