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Med schools see record number of applicants
The number of first-time applicants to U.S. medical schools reached a record high in 2011, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) said Tuesday.
The figures are good news for Democrats, whose healthcare reform law has been accused of driving older doctors into early retirement because of its mandates and complexity. The AAMC had projected a shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by 2020, but now says medical colleges are on track to close the gap thanks to a 30 percent increase in enrollment between 2006 and 2017.
"We are very pleased that medicine continues to be attractive at a time when our healthcare system faces many challenges," AAMC President and CEO Darrell Kirch said in a statement.
Medical schools are also training a more diverse student body: Hispanic/Latino enrollment was up 6.1 percent, AAMC said, while black enrollment was up 1.9 percent and Asian enrollees increased by 3.3 percent.
Driving the increase in enrollment, the AAMC said, is medical school expansion. Eleven medical schools increased their class sizes more than 10 percent in 2011, while three new schools — in Florida, Michigan and New York — opened their doors.
The AAMC warned, however, that Congress risks undermining that growth if it fails to reauthorize federal funding for residency slots. The failed deficit-cutting supercommittee at one point was rumored to be considering cuts of as much as 60 percent to Medicare payments for Graduate Medical Education.
"If Congress cuts the funding for doctor training, we may not have enough residency training positions to accommodate this growing number of medical school graduates," Kirch said. "We need to continue the support that Medicare provides for residency training, so we can ensure that these students coming in today will actually be able to complete their training. That will be a key factor in the quality of healthcare we all receive in the years to come."
