Health Care Reform Proposals and the Missing Link
Today AMN Staffing Services released a comprehensive report stating that the plans put forward by the leading 2008 presidential candidates to enhance access to healthcare will prove impractical without more physicians and nurses. AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. is the largest temporary healthcare staffing company in the United States.
According to today's press release from AMN Staffing, the report, Physician and Nurse Supply: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle, reviews the healthcare reform proposals of seven leading presidential candidates and evaluates the proposals in the context of physician and nurse supply. According to the report, none of the candidates have yet proposed initiatives to increase physician and nurse supply to meet today's shortages, or to address the increased need for healthcare services that would arise under a reformed system featuring expanded access to care.
The report observes that the United States currently has a shortfall of 120,000 nurses. With the aging of the baby boomer population and an aging nurse workforce, that deficit is projected to be at least 350,000 by 2020, and, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, could reach 1,000,000 nurses by 2020. The report also cites the growing physician shortage, which is projected to reach between 85,000 and 200,000 physicians by 2020.
All of the presidential candidates have emphasized the dire need to change the current system to cover some, if not all, of the country's 47 million uninsured. Regardless of whether there is complete or partial health insurance benefit coverage, there will be a significantly higher demand for healthcare services, and not nearly enough physicians or nurses to fill this need. Something the candidates, Congress, state and local governments, and industry leaders need to address in the greater context of industry reform.
Having health insurance is critical, but so is an adquate supply of caregivers. Technology and insurance funding can only go so far on this one...
Deanne
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