No disrepect to the above post, but those "facts" just aren't the case. The production of physicians, NP's and PA's are all time highs. The production of physicians will always be there due to the American Dream of "my kid's a doctor." However, the quality will drop over time due to numerous factors in medicine, including the skyrocketing debt that students must incur, the decreasing reimbursement that physicians receive (has steadily declined over the last 20 yrs.) and unrelenting malpractice, and there are more.