Last week was Match Day, when graduating medical students found out where theyÛªll be doing their training. Just over 42% of the family medicine residency slots went to seniors receiving their M.D.s from U.S. med schools. Forty nine percent of the slots went to foreign medical school graduates and others. Nine percent of the slots went unfilled. Family medicine pays around $180,000 a year.
Compare this to anesthesiology.
Median compensation is $400,000 a year.
Almost 84% of the slots went to
U.S. seniors. Another 15% went to everyone else. Only 1% of the slots went unfilled.
Life balance issues and the motivation of money (graduates have huge medical debts) are partly the cause. In a nation that will need more and more primary care, expect more waits and bad service. Or better yet letÛªs start taking care of ourselves so we donÛªt need the health system at all.
I smell more opportunity for physician assistants and retail clinics.
