To combat a nationwide shortage of doctors, The Association of American Medical Colleges plan to add 3,000 first- year students by 2018. But this will not suffice and rural areas would be worst hit.

According to estimates by the Center for Workforce Studies by 2025, the US will be short of 160,000 doctors.

Last year, there were 16,721 lesser primary-care doctors than required in rural areas, according to the U. S. Health and Human Services Department.

For the additional 31 million Americans who seek health care the current level of physician coverage will not be enough to meet the demand.

As a way to manage rising medical costs Congress has capped medical residencies at about 90,000 since 1997.

Harry Reid from Democratic Majority Leader, along with Senator Charles Schumer of New York and Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, submitted an amendment on December 5 to the healthcare legislation that would add 15,000 residences at a cost to Medicare of about $1.5 billion.

According to a data Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, increased its first-year enrollment by 12 per cent. This year this was followed by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, that increased theirs by 7.7 percent, and the University of Tennessee in Memphis went up by 10 percent.

Federal officials need to follow up on the commitment medical schools have made to raise the number of residencies available to students. This would help combat the shortfall, said Robert Feinstein, senior associate dean for education at the University of Colorado medical school in Denver.

“We need to focus on preparing our graduates for a future,” Jules Dienstag, dean for medical education in a university wrote.