1220 



TABLE 30.-DOCTORS OF MEDICINE AND RATE PER 100,000 POPULATION, JULY I, SELECTED YEARS' 



I See text for differences between table 1 1 1-1 and table 1 1 1-3. 

 5 Excludes June graduates of the year concerned, 

 s Population base includes Armeo Forces overseas. 



Source: Rashi Fein, "The Doctor Shortage: An Economic Diagnosis" (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1967), p. 66. 

 (Data through 1957 from U.S. Public Health Service, Health manpower source book, sec. 9, Phvsicians, dentists and pro- 

 fessional nurses (1959), p. 9. Data for 1959 and 1962 from ibid., Sec. 14, Medical specialists (1962), p. 3.> 



Source: Rashi Fein, "The Doctor Shortage: An Economic Diagnosis" (Washington: Brookings Institution, 

 1967), p. 67. (Data for years up to and including 1935 from R. G. LeIand, Distribution of physicians in the 

 United States (American Medical Association, 1936), p. 2; for later years from "Journal of the American 

 Medical Association," vol. 198, No. 8 (Nov. 21, 1966), p. 88.) 



The decline in the number of medical schools during 1910-15 is attributed to the raising of standards 

 after publication of the Flexner report in 1910. See Fein's explanation on pp. 65-67. 



There are 140 counties in the United States which have no physicians 

 engaged in rendering patient care. The vast majority (108) are in 

 the West. The 140 counties cover 138,463 square miles, or approxi- 

 mately 3.9 percent of the total land area of the United States. Almost 

 one-half million (497,000) people or 0.2 percent of the total U.S. poj^u- 

 lation reside in these counties.^" In general, low-income, inner-city 

 areas have relatively fewer physicians than the suburbs, the rural areas 

 less than urban, and the pcJorer States less than the wealthier.^^^ 

 Such shortages are apparent to the casual reader of Sunday's edition 

 of The Neio York Times, which invariably carries one-to-two full page 

 advertisements on medical and hospital employment opportunities.^"* 



Thus the United States is a debtor nation in terms of its current 

 supply of M.D.s, and the evidence suggests that the doctor shortage 

 will persist. This view is held by most specialists on health matters de- 

 spite a national program to increase student enrollment in existing 

 medical schools, establish new medical schools, and accelerate the rate 

 of graduation of physicians. This deficit is filled by FMGs largely 



B«G A Roback, Distribution of Physicians in the U.S.. 1972, Departnjent of Survey 

 Re'search Center for Health Services Research and Development. American Medical Associa- 



"-•^onir^elfiS'lllelwSf^SeTvlcr^i'cfc^^^^^ Report on National Health Insurance. 



^^L l^^^for' example, The New York Times, Oct. 14. 1973, pp. lOE-llB. 



