Half?!?!

So my husband directed me to this news article earlier today. It's pretty scary. For those of you who don't want to follow the link, it is a news article entitled, Half of primary care doctors in survey would leave medicine. The jist of it is that half of primary care doctors they surveyed said they would opt to leave medicine in the next 3 years if they had an alternative! As a medical student, this is something that really gives me pause. I am hearing more and more about doctors not wanting to be doctors anymore. This article only addresses the issue in primary care doctors, but the problem is more widespread. There are actually people who go to medical school, see what it's really like, and choose not to go on to residency. There are options such as insurance consultants or pharmaceutical reps in which people would make more or the same money and work less hours. Then there are other options that have nothing to do with medicine - some medical school graduates choose to open their own business. In this news article, it wasn't so much a money issue as it was all the extra paperwork the government has made a part of Medicaid/Medicare. So there are people - the same people who go to medical school because "they want to help people" - realizing what it is really about, and leaving! Guys, this is a big problem! We are already short in this country of primary care doctors. Fewer and fewer medical students are choosing to go into primary care, and more and more primary care doctors are leaving primary care! And in medical school, you can guess how much education we get about issues such as this. That's right - zilch.

Something has to be done. The question is what? Part of Obama's healthcare plan includes switching medical records, billing, etc. to computers. Perhaps that would take care of the paperwork issue, but I don't think that is the only problem here. There are fundamental problems with out healthcare system, and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse before it gets better.

For me personally, this hits close to home. I am really torn at this point between wanting to do primary care and wanting to specialize. Articles such as this make me want to steer clear of primary care - and this is exactly the opposite of what we want medical students to be doing! So what is the solution? Trust me, if I knew, I wouldn't be putting it on this little blog. How about you guys? Any comments on the healthcare system or how it should be changed?