No Surprise: The Primary Care Shortage Will Soon Worsen

Posted on September 10th, 2008 by Sean Khozin, MD, MPH

A new study published in JAMA shows that only 2% of medical students are considering being primary care physicians, citing the bad lifestyle as one of the main factors. I don’t blame them. Primary care physicians are overworked and underpaid. Why should any medical student with over $100,000 of debt settle such an under-appreciated job? Life is too short and self-sacrifice doesn’t pay the bills.

Politicians and policy experts should wake up. There is an impending crisis of great proportions in healthcare that will soon compromise our ability to care for our aging population and remain competitive in the global marketplace.

More info: USA Today

Filed under: Culture, Health Policy

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2 Responses to “No Surprise: The Primary Care Shortage Will Soon Worsen”

  1. Michael D. Miller, MD, on September 12th, 2008 at 5:21 pm Said:

    Sean - the JAMA study actually found that 2% of graduating medical students were going to pursue primary care out of an Internal Medicine residency programs. There were another 5% going into family medicine programs and 12% going into pediatrics. You can see more about this issue on my blog at http://www.healthpolcom.com/blog/2008/09/10/incentives-for-everything-but-primary-care/ Which also has some links to other posts I’ve written about efforts to boost incentives for primary care…

    Best Wishes, Mike

  2. Sean Khozin, MD, MPH, on September 12th, 2008 at 6:16 pm Said:

    You’re right Mike. I used the phrase “primary care” to denote the 2% in internal medicine that won’t be subspecializing. There are more medical students going into primary care, but if you still add it all up, it won’t be enough.

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