The Future Supply of Physicians

New and stronger pressures to reduce federal spending and growing concern within the medical profession that a surplus of physicians already exists or looms in some regions are focusing greater attention on the question of how many medical students the United States should be training. Certainly no consensus has emerged, but federal policies are increasingly based on the administration's assertion that a physician surplus already exists. Because the Reagan administration is determined to reduce federal responsibilities in the social sphere, however, the government has made little connection between the bountiful supply of practicing physicians and the opportunity to provide services . . .