The growing number of an older American population and the passage of the Affordable Care Act will require at least 52,000 more family doctors by 2025 indicating a possible critical shortage of primary doctors in the United States, reveals a new study.
The study titled "Projecting U.S. Primary Care Physician Workforce Needs: 2010-2025" by Stephen Petterson, PhD, et al at the Robert Graham Center, Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care, revealed that the expected serious physician shortage will be the result of an aging U.S. population and the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which will expand insurance coverage to an additional 34 million people.
The new Act would necessitate a 25 percent increase in the current workforce to keep up with the insurance coverage to an additional millions of people.
"Population growth will be the single greatest driver of increased primary care utilization, requiring approximately 33,000 additional primary care physicians by 2025, while 10,000 additional physicians will be needed to accommodate population aging," the study said. "Insurance expansion will require approximately 8,000 additional primary care physicians, a 3 percent increase in the current workforce."
The authors called for immediate policy reversals to meet the increased demand for primary care. According to another estimate by the Association of American Medical Colleges, Obamacare will result a doctor shortage of 63,000 by 2015 and more than 91,000 by 2020.
"The health care consumer that values the relationship with a personal physician, particularly in areas already struggling with access to primary care physicians should be aware of potential access challenges that they may face in the future if the production of primary care physicians does not increase," said Dr. Andrew Bazemore, director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Primary Care and co-author of the study published Monday in the Annals of Family Medicine.
