Obamacare or bust

The Obama Administration's plan for health care is creating a demand for more physicians (especially in primary care), which seems good for would-be physicians. In fact I believe that was one of the selling-points touted by the Administration.

But according to this article the problem is that there are no plans to create more residency spots to train newly minted med school graduates or junior doctors.

So, on the one hand, med schools are accepting and enrolling more med students into med school in order to meet the increased demand for more physicians under the new health care bill.

But on the other hand, according to the article, there are no plans to increase residency spots. The new health care bill doesn't deal with the issue.

Hence there's going to be a bottleneck when it comes to competition for residency spots, which doesn't sound so good for would-be doctors anymore. So much for this selling-point.

If the Obama Administration does want to increase residency spots via funding Medicare (which is apparently what teaching hospitals currently rely on most for funding to create residencies), then it seems like it'd increase the price tag in either more or higher taxes for taxpayers.

Of course, this in and of itself doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea to have universal health care coverage under the new health care bill. But (in addition to many other valid criticisms) it does cast considerable doubt on its wisdom since it looks like the Obama Administration's health care bill is not only costing us as a society an arm and a leg but now perhaps a kidney too.

If this is true, then the main question would seem to be, are we willing to foot the bill in terms of paying more or higher taxes in order train more doctors to doctor us? What's more, are willing to let the tax revenue be allocated to wherever the federal or state governments deem there's a physician shortfall?