Unbiased Writer

Despite our current struggle to move forward with a healthcare system that will make Democrats, Republicans, and Americans satisfied, it seems as if the powers that be in higher education are predicting imminent change.  Almost two-dozen medical schools have recently or will recently open for enrollment, which is more than there have been at any time since the ‘70’s.  

While the American Bar Association has a list of 200 approved US law schools, there are only 131 medical schools in comparison.  If all of the proposed programs come to be, then there would be an 18% increase in schools around the nation.  Some of these programs will be at new institutions like The Commonwealth Medical College, which just opened in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Others are new schools at existing universities, such as Hofstra, at Quinnipiac University.  The University of California, Riverside, Central Michigan University, and Rowan University are other examples of schools that are currently developing medical programs. In addition, several established schools are expanding their programs to accommodate more students. 

This influx is a direct response to the growing imbalance in the American medical field.  Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, only one medical school opened in the entire country.  Qualified students have given up or sought an education abroad when they’ve been unable to get into American medical schools, and yet hospitals have had to fill their residency positions with foreign doctors.  Dr. Lawrence G. Smith, Dean of the potential Hofstra University School of Medicine called this pattern a “wake up call” for American educational institutions. 

Yet it’s also a response to the changing political tides.  If the Obama Administration is successful in working with Congress to push through its healthcare agenda, then eventually, a wave of newly insured patients will need doctors to care for them.  The need will grow even more too, as the baby-boom generation ages, which could mean that as many as a third of our current doctors will retire within the next two decades. 

Some argue that nurse practitioners and nurses could fill the gap for less cost, and others say that doctors all tend to live in urban areas, which don’t need more doctors anyway.  Skeptics believe that in the end, there will be too many doctors for the good of our society, and the healthcare system will eventually suffer as a result.  Yet Peter Allen was one of 1,300 applicants for 60 spots at the new Commonwealth Medical College.  28 out of the 30 schools that he applied to rejected him.  “I was ecstatic that I had been accepted to a medical school,” Mr. Allen said, (adding that he would have applied for a master’s in bioengineering if he hadn’t gotten in). “It’s a giant sigh of relief; it secures your plans for the rest of your life really.”  What do you think?

Written by: Ashley Ellis