The presence of the doctor is the beginning of the cure.

The debate on health care seems dominated by cost.  How much, and where will it come from?  Important questions, particularly in the midst of a recession, but a more important question might be, “Where will they come from?”

Money makes the world go round, but it will not cause doctors and nurses to materialize out of thin air.  Extending coverage to forty million new patients and promoting broader preventative care might be a laudable goal but that doesn’t change the basic fact that increasing demand with a growing supply shortfall will have significant repercussions.  Costs will go up, availability will go down or both.

Any rational attempt to control costs and expand coverage needs to treat this a core issue, and yet it gets scant mention if acknowledged at all.  Why?