From MSNBC:
As the nation’s debate about overhauling health care heats up, one truth remains undisputed: There are not enough general care doctors to meet current needs, let alone the demands of some 46 million uninsured, who threaten to swamp the system.
It’s a problem growing worse in Everson and across the country, where more aging doctors are finding they can’t retire. In the U.S., there are at least 4,500 primary care doctors older than 75, according to figures from the Physicians Masterfile database maintained by the American Medical Association. Overall, there are about 270,000 doctors practicing primary care, which includes family, general medicine and internal medicine.
As younger doctors increasingly choose the better pay and balanced lifestyle promised by specialty practice, older doctors, especially in poor and rural areas, are working longer, reluctant to abandon their clients — but unable to find new care for them.
“Most of them would like to fade out, but they have an obligation,” said Dr. Joseph W. Stubbs, president of the American College of Physicians. “The issue is that there is not enough primary care because there are not enough medical students going into primary care.”
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