Directions: Read the following passages and choose the best answers to the questions.

This passage comprises 2 Letters to the Editor of the New York Times. The first letter is from Alex Busko commenting on an issue published by the newspaper, and the second one from Tim Wycoff, another New York Times reader, reacting to Busko's letter.

To the Editor:

With the expansion of coverage under the Affordable Care Act set to take effect next year, the United States is facing an alarming physician shortage. We don't have enough physicians to treat insured patients right now. What happens when there are an estimated 30 million more insured patients in 2014?

The American Association of Medical Colleges estimates that by 2015, the shortage of doctors across all specialties will quadruple, to more than 60,000. By 2025, that number will reach a staggering 130,000. Last year there were 45,266 medical school applicants competing for 19,517 seats. Thousands of qualified people every year can't get into medical school. This will be partly addressed by plans to open new medical schools and expand existing ones.

But there's a bigger problem. After graduating from medical school, a newly minted doctor must complete a three-to-seven-year residency before practicing independently. These residency positions are largely federally funded, and while medical school enrollment has been slowly increasing, the number of residencies has been capped since the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.

A bill recently introduced in Congress would increase the number of residency training programs by 15,000 over five years. And while I applaud this proposal, it's estimated that it will supply not even half of the physicians necessary to address our shortage. We need to do more.

Here's one idea: Foreign-trained physicians usually must complete a residency here before they are licensed to practice independently. We ought to allow them to quickly prove their competence, sit for the boards and start taking care of patients.

I am pleased that 30 million Americans will soon have health insurance for the first time. But health insurance is pretty useless if you can't find a doctor to treat you and your family.

ALEX BUSKO
Miami, June 17, 2013

Readers React

As a practicing family physician for the past 25-plus years, I would say that we do not have a shortage of doctors so much as we, as a nation, have a shortage of healthy habits. My days are filled with taking care of patients with problems such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol levels that are largely the result of bad eating and little exercise. My "toolbox" consists of a lot of expensive tests and medicines, plus my often frustrating attempts at changing individual behaviors within a culture of toxic, addictive food and an endless variety of labor-saving devices and toys.

Rather than producing (or importing) more doctors for the burgeoning population of the overnourished and underfit, I would suggest that we focus on reining in the food and agriculture industry that dominates our food supply. At the same time we should be promoting more physical activity.

In short, if everyone in this country would eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly, 50 percent of the problems that I see daily would not even exist, and I could focus on the diseases and injuries of bad genes and bad luck and just getting older. Doctor shortage solved.

TIM WYCOFF 
Appleton, Wis, June 19, 2013

What does Busko expect the readers to feel after reading his letter?