Now is the Time for Economic Diversity and Affirmative Action To Improve Louisiana’s Healthcare Status through Medical Education
Citizens of Louisiana are no strangers to natural and economic disasters. In recent years, severe storms and hurricanes, including the infamous Hurricane Katrina of 2005 (the worst natural disaster to hit the U.S. in modern times), Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Gustav resulted in significant losses to life and property.
On April 20, 2010, the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig that was situated about 40 miles southeast of the Louisiana coastline killed 11 workers; several others were injured in the tragedy. We extend our sincere condolences to those who have suffered personal losses.
The oil rig’s collapse and the subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico impact not only the state’s natural resources but the livelihoods and ways of life of thousands of Louisiana residents who depend on the Gulf for employment.
Additionally the federal government’s current moratorium on deep-water drilling imposes further economic depletion. According to the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association (LOGA), the continuing moratorium affects more than the 320,000 Louisianans who work jobs supported by the oil and gas industry and the 58,000 Louisianans working in extraction, refining and pipeline jobs. The economic standstill caused by the moratorium, LOGA says, affects everyone.
Full assessment of the damages—and when or if the region will completely recover—might not be known for years.
Recently, too, Northrop Grumman announced its intentions to close its Avondale, Louisiana shipyard in early 2013 after it completes work on two Navy LPD-17 amphibious assault ships. TheAvondale yard is one of the largest employers in the region. Closure of the facility will dramatically impact the region with the loss of about 5,000 direct jobs and about 6,500 indirect jobs. Two small ship yards at Tallulah and Waggaman are also planned for closure.
From oil-related industries to commercial fishing to shipbuilding, employment of thousands of people and billions of dollars in economic activity are at risk of long-term and permanent loss.
These cuts into Louisiana’s economy come at an inopportune time with the state just now recovering from Hurricane Katrina and struggling to create and retain jobs in today’s challenging economic environment.
Louisiana’s losses, however, are not isolated to the state. Damage to Louisiana’s $2.4 billion seafood industry affects food service industries and consumers from coast to coast. And the moratorium on offshore drilling will impose serious consequences for the Gulf and the nation. In a July 2010 report for the American Energy Alliance titled The Economic Cost of a Moratorium on Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration to the Gulf Region, Dr. Joseph Mason states that a significant halt to offshore exploration and drilling will result in billions of dollars in additional lost economic activity in the Gulf. He adds that the losses will not just affect upstream and downstream industries, but could also impact state and local governments, as well as small retail stores, education services, healthcare assistance, and a host of other industries.
If the moratorium continues as planned, overall energy production could be reduced. Those cuts will then translate into increases in oil and gas prices. Everyone in the country will pay more for their food, household expenses and gasoline bills. In a worse-case scenario, there could be energy blackouts and gasoline shortages.
Diversity is the key to economic recovery and survival, especially since recessionary pressures continue to push unemployment rates higher than they were a year ago and since the state remains vulnerable to natural and unanticipated manmade disasters.
While we entirelysupport the recovery of the industries harmed by the oil spill (and endeavor to facilitate the recovery), we are also proponents of more economic diversity in Louisiana. The proposed new medical school at Central Louisiana, for example, is a studied, shovel-ready strategy for creating a powerful economic engine that will not only create an expected 8,300 new well-paying, sustainable jobs but also address the serious physician shortage and health care disparity problems in the state.
We encourage your immediate support and funding of this critically important project.
For more information, please contact Dr. Jarrett Flood at 225-766-3894.
Signed:
The FICA Partnership for the Economic and Healthcare Recovery of Louisiana
The Critical Need for Medical Doctors in the State of Louisiana
The American Medical Association (AMA) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), among others, have published reports on the impending shortage of physicians in the United States. The retirement of physicians and the aging baby boomer population, alone, will create a need for more trained doctors. According to the reports, existing U.S. medical schools are not presently educating enough students to maintain an adequate number of U.S. health care providers in the near future. Experts are projecting that, by the year 2020, there will be an 80,000 to 200,000 physician shortage nationwide.
The State of Louisiana already experiences the effects of an inadequate number of doctors. Problems that existed prior to Hurricane Katrina were only exacerbated by the storm. To date, no one has been able to even completely quantify how much worse the situation has become. In addition, Louisiana’s citizens will continue to suffer because there are no incentives to retain medical doctors in this state – they move to other states for higher pay and a higher style of living. FICA believes that the emphasis of our community should be to encourage physicians to stay in the state through incentives offered by hospitals.
In conjunction with a group of community leaders, Flood International Consulting Agency (FICA) seeks to pursue measures to rectify this shortage problem. We find it interesting that, over the last twenty years, many entrepreneurs have entertained the thought of building a new medical school in Louisiana; however, none have ever advanced beyond the idea stage. Establishing a medical school in Baton Rouge is a logical pursuit given that the populations of Baton Rouge and its surrounding communities have doubled since Hurricane Katrina. A new medical school would increase the opportunities for students in Louisiana universities desiring to become physicians and help to improve health care in the state. In addition, a new medical school would not only assist in filling the physician shortage gap, but it could also help drive the economy and advance Louisiana’s medical industry. If a medical school were built, in ten years from its opening, Louisiana could expect an additional 25,000 jobs, $6.4 billion in economic activity and almost $2.3 billion paid in wages. These projections are from recent studies on developing medical schools in Florida.
It is time that the Louisiana medical community comes together to fill the void that our state is facing. According to a recent USA Today article, “The predictions of a doctor shortage represent an abrupt about-face for the medical profession. For the past quarter-century, the American Medical Association and other industry groups have predicted a glut of doctors and worked to limit the number of new physicians. In 1994, the Journal of the American Medical Association predicted a surplus of 165,000 doctors by 2000.” But, "It didn't happen," according to David Blumenthal, a Harvard University medical professor and author of a New England Journal of Medicine article concerning the doctor supply. (See the full text article on USAToday).
As for our team, we will do our part by connecting with leaders who can assist us in a variety of ways to advance our local and state communities. The goal is to bring brilliant scientists from various parts of the nation and the world to advance the medical community in the state of Louisiana. We are a unique consulting firm in that our advisors and projects are globally situated, however, our ultimate focus is on bringing progress to the State of Louisiana. For this reason, we have chosen to keep our offices in Louisiana rather than in business centers such as Chicago and New York: Baton Rouge is home and we want to remain a part of its fabric.
Healthcare in America: Where do you fit in the equation?
It is estimated that 47 million Americans have no health insurance. Economic recession is the mantra repeated from the media as the U.S. economy weakens. Many Americans cannot afford milk or gasoline much less health care. On Capitol Hill, Congress is looking to reduce Medicare payments to physicians by 10.6%, scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2008. The cuts will force Family Practitioners to turn away the elderly just to keep their doors open. The aforementioned problem is a symptom of a system that is worsening. Medicare cuts are at the tip of the iceberg of the larger demographical problem. While senior citizens are living longer, baby boomer physicians are retiring sooner looking for a better life. The American Medical Association (AMA) foresees a 93,000 to 200,000 physician shortage by the year 2020. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is calling for a 30% increase in U.S. medical schools. Several states have taken on the rigorous task of building new medical schools while measurably boosting their states’ economic well being.
“The new president of the Association of American Medical Colleges has called on medical schools to elevate the public good above their own self-interest by considering tuition caps, curtailing pork-barrel spending requests, and pursuing socially beneficial research projects even if they are not profitable.”
The focus of U.S. medical schools should be towards addressing the community in the states that they serve. However, this is a national problem and should be resolved at all levels of government. As you read this, ask yourself , when is it enough for lawmakers to sound the alarm for action? To add insult to injury, students are not given good incentives to practice medicine in underserved areas, such as my home state of Louisiana.
The national average of graduating medical students' debt increased 6.9% in 2007 from the previous year to $139,517. 75.5% of graduates have debts of at least $100,000. 87.6% of graduating medical students is indebted with educational loans. Although the average debt of medical students is around $100,000, this does not include interest charged by loan companies. Including interest, students can easily sustain educational debt loads of over $200,000. Such an enormous amount of debt can take up to 20 to 30 years to pay back because loan companies apply most of loan payments to interest rather than the prinicipal balance. The result is that graduates suffer to pay back loans for a number of years because they are "swimming against the stream of interest" which loan companies profit from.
These staggering figures bear witness that new physicians starting careers with a salary of $150,000/year are not inclined to establish practices in underserved areas. The average family practitioner, after spending a minimum of eight years training in college and medical school, incurs an astronomical amount of debt. A new doctor will be expected to owe student loans of at least $150,000 not counting interest to be paid out over 15 to 30 years. The new doctor typically aspires to develop personally and take on new responsibilities of raising a family, which may include a residential mortgage, raising children, and other expenses. These additonal expenses can easily approach $250,000 or more on top of the educational debt of $150,000. If a new physician wants to be independent and start a solo-pratice, he or she will have to raise even more money to start his or her business. It is not unrealistic that new physicians can incur a debt in excess of $600,000 or more depending on the risks they take. That is why the trend for establishing solo-practices has decreased because new physicians have incurred an excessive amount of debt and are dependent on group practices in order to minimize their debt.
Concentrating physicians in group practices is also worrisome because it only exacerbates the physician shortage issue. Ideally, one physician is trained to service tens of thousands of people in a community but if a number of doctors is concentrated in a particular area (i.e. - a suburb), then other communities suffer because the distribution of physicians is poor.
In order to properly address these difficult issues facing our medical industry, Flood International Consulting Agency (FICA) vows to be part of the solution. We have already started in our great State of Louisiana to find solutions to these problems. Through special lobbying efforts the FICA team is working hard to encourage the Louisiana government to build a new U.S. medical school. This new medical school will be unlike any other medical school in the U.S. and will focus to solve the physician shortage problem while reducing or eliminating the debt loads of new physicians in training. The FICA team has created a proposal for a new paradigm model for a 21st century medical school in Louisiana. It is designed to benefit our Louisiana communities through a cooperative effort from our local businesses and organizations. According to key national healthcare policy makers, our model of medical school intimates the direction for the future of the healthcare industry. I believe together we can seek innovative and creative means to satisfy the healthcare needs of our state.
I believe we can all agree that the need for increased collaborative efforts to enhance Louisiana's healthcare is essential. With cooperation from our political leaders and business sector, Louisiana 's citizens become the beneficiaries of quality healthcare and economic stimulus.
If you are interested in helping solve health care disparities in the State of Louisiana while modeling future programs for our nation, please contact us today.
Sincerely yours,
Jarrett S. Flood, M.D.
President Flood International Consulting Agency
