Too Many Physicians: Sound Alarm!

Abstract

In late September 1980, the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee (GMENAC), after four years of study, turned in a report to the US Department of Health and Human Services and announced that there will soon be too many physicians. The 21-member committee, appointed to advise, followed the trend so often shown by federally appointed groups and concerned itself with management, thus demonstrating that federal advisory committees haven't changed much during the present decade. 1,2 As reported in American Medical News (Sept 19, 1980), one committee member, Bruce E. Spivey, MD, emphasized the turn of the tide when he said: We started... with the understanding that we were going to try to describe [emphasis added].... Now, for some reason, we feel compelled to make specific recommendations. Another member, Mr Carl Barrera, assistant general counsel for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co, sounded like the well-known economist, Milton Friedman, when the assistant general counsel