Looming Primary Care Physician Shortage

The number of medical students going into primary care has dropped by 50% since 1997. A shortage of primary care physicians looms as fewer future doctors are interested in general practice. It isn't surprising that new doctors are avoiding the lowest paying jobs. When medical schools saddle new doctors with an average of around $200,000 worth of debt each (in addition to whatever loans they may have outstanding from their undergraduate educations), many doctors seek more lucrative fields. Some argue that this could derail Obama's new health care law, by questioning how we plan to treat all of the uninsured if we already have a shortage of primary care physicians.