OpEdNews - QuickLink: A Doctor Shortage Is Looming, and a Clinton-Era Policy Is Partly to Blame - The U.S. is projected to experience a shortage of 46,900 to 121,900 physicians by 2032.Antiquated funding restrictions for medical apprenticeships could worsen an already devastating burnout crisis.Clinton and a Republican-controlled Congress negotiated the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which aimed to balance the federal ledgers by 2002, and enacted a number of reforms aimed at squeezing cost savings from Medicare.One of these provisions sought to cap the number of medical school graduates apprenticing as residents in U.S. teaching hospitals. How could such a provision make it through Congress? Lawmakers received cover from the American Medical Association (AMA), the Association of American Medical Colleges, and other major stakeholders in American medicine who endorsed caps on funding for residents and other graduate medical education programs.
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