The new governor has a proposal to stop the exodus that will need to be voted on by the senate and house of representatives in PR.
About 2,422 doctors have left the island in the last 12 years or 347 annually. This has caused the lengtening of time to get an appointment and the deficit of specialists.
The proposal is to limit the tax contribution so a doctor making 250K or less pays no taxes and limits taxation at 4% instead of the 33% that they currently face,
More work will be needed in other areas like the contracts with medical plans where a doctor can be removed from the plan with no rime or reason. Also it is going to take some doing as the government does not currently pays all its bill making doctors and many others with contracts with the government to wait for their money.
While the government is trying to get parity into the amount of money provided by Medicare and medicaid, this is a big unknown, PR receives a lot less money from these programs and the government is looking to get Washington to provide funds equivalent to the amount states receive. However there is nothing in the wind that says that they are considering making changes to the current formulas.
We will need to wait and see if the above law proposal is passed and if it helps reverse the exodus.