Primary care doctor shortage worsening across U.S.

Across America, primary care physicians are becoming increasingly hard to find. Doctors told NBC News’ Anne Thompson the number of physicians is not growing fast enough to keep up with an aging population.

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#Doctor #Shortage #PrimaryCare

[foycur]

No shortage of dermatologists, or radiologists, or cardiologists. Know why? They get paid.

[sarahhagle]

Healthcare corporations keep getting larger and larger and focus on money rather than patient care and the big picture. CEOs make 10 million a year (ie Ascension), but say they are too broke to pay for primary care doctors who don’t make them as much money as surgeons and other specialties.

[shorteningbread]

Be nice if the insurance companies would stop demanding so much out of these doctors. The documentation is insane and not necessary. The end result poor patient care and lack of providers. When are they going to wake up?

[middle]

I am a physician (not primary care) and the problem is simple: primary care docs are woefully underpaid. Every year there are tons of unfilled primary care spots because nobody wants to do it. It doesn't pay enough.

[rocktorrocks]

Either forgive their loans or pay them more…it’s that simple. Also the issue is not residency slots. Plenty of family medicine residencies looking for good applicants, med students just aren’t applying to those programs because why go through a decade of hard training to be underpaid, overworked and undervalued.

[Nucpower]

Really, let’s talk about residency slots available, this was made by changes in funding in 1990 by Medicare

[slugo]

My doctor retired in June of this year. The office used to have 8 FT doctors and 1 nurse practitioner. Down to 3 FT dr.'s. The last doc I saw said their leaving because their pay isn't enough here in PA. It's crazy the wait times also if you need a non life threatening appointment. Usually 6 months or more if you try to schedule in advance.

[cincinnatibengals]

10 years? Try 11 at a minimum... not counting 100s of thousands $ in debt.

[tbolton]

Well, there's certainly no shortage of high medical costs!

[shorty]

Forgive all debt for primary care physicians after 3-5 yrs. Med school plus undergrad debt is too much, like who do they expect will want to takevn that debt burden

[clekavil]

Get rid of the requirement to have an undergraduate degree. Just a waste of time, and adds to student debt. Maybe instead go for a 5 year degree

[dd-lbvc]

Wait six months for a five minute appointment. 🤷‍♂️

[managingmonasmoula]

Just lost my PCP also. The state I live in has a dire shortage of PCP’s also. It’s a prevalent problem across the USA.

[AmericanFUBAR]

I practiced in the US for 13 years as a pcp. The USA does NOT have a shortage of primary care physicians. They have a distribution problems as the video confirmed to you NYC alone has 4 times the total amount of physicians in the state of Alabama. Because every doctor wants the best access to schools for their kids and best job opportunities for their spouses or partners. The American health care system increases PA and NPs as direct competitors to primary care physicians and wonder now why medical students dont choose primary care as a specialty. I moved back to Canada and opened my own practice, here even in Montreal, the shortage is real, people are dying without access to care.

[rboddington]

But, but, this only happens in countries with socialized medicine like Canada and the UK.

[FoOtFoOt]

I don’t understand why we have a doctor shortage. Half of Americans don’t believe in the science of medicine. I have noticed however, there is an over abundance of churches. Aren’t those prayers working for them?

[twinb]

There is definitely a shortage of physicians taking Medicare in Eugene & Springfield Oregon. It is really difficult to find a medical group that is accepting new patients!

[twatwaffle]

Blame the overpriced and high interest rates of student loans

[happylibrarian]

For profit health-care. America, where we worship

[knotheadusc]

It’s going to get worse for those in red states.