EFFECT OF HEALTH SYSTEM, FINANCING, AND MACRO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS ON THE MIGRATION OF FOREIGN PHYSICIANS TO OECD COUNTRIES

Author(s)

Aydin S
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

This study specifically focuses on ‘pull’ factors affecting physician migration to OECD countries. The demand on human resource in healthcare is rapidly growing worldwide, and there is a chronic need for some 2.4 million more physicians. These shortages provide that many countries have insufficient numbers of healthcare workforce to deliver necessary interventions producing health. The global migration of physicians is increasingly playing a key role in compensating for an inadequate domestic supply in many countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Physician flows that is the way for the countries to solve the shortage of medical professionals is receiving increased attention. For example, on average in the OECD, there are around 20% of foreign born employed physicians. In total, 243,000 foreign trained physicians registered to practice in the United States while 91,000 in the United Kingdom (in 2011), 18,000 in Australia (in 2009), and 18,000 in Canada (in 2012) registered to practice. In general, the OECD countries that have more migrated physicians tend to have more professional health workforce to use them as a “quick fix” to address the needs, because training extra physicians takes many years to have an effect.  Based on the previous studies and widely accepted literatures, three main categories have been found crucial on the migration physicians to OECD countries; Healthcare Resources Characteristics (Physicians, Medical graduations, and Medical Technology density), Healthcare System Characteristics and Financing (Health expenditures, Financing of expenditure, Social Protection, healthcare utilization, Health Status), and Macro-Economic Characteristics (GDP, PPP, NCU, GNP, GNI, wages, and unemployment rate). Overall, the migration flows to OECD counties are expected to grow in coming decades due to increasing demand in the aging population as well as technological changes anticipated to increase the demand for health care services.

Conference/Value in Health Info

2017-11, ISPOR Europe 2017, Glasgow, Scotland

Value in Health, Vol. 20, No. 9 (October 2017)

Code

PHP308

Topic

Health Policy & Regulatory

Disease

Multiple Diseases

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