Newspapers Look At Potential Physician Shortages In Several States

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 24 Nov 2008 - 9:00 PST

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Summaries of articles about physician shortages in several states appear below:

• Florida: Florida will need 63% more primary physicians within the next 10 years to avoid a shortage, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. The state faces the third-largest physician shortage in the nation. According to the Sun-Sentinel, surveys show that more students are choosing "specialties with regular hours and fewer late-night calls," as well as those with higher pay. In 2006, 8.7% of medical school graduates in Florida entered family medicine, compared with the national average of 9.5%, according to AAFP. The group reports that nationally, the percentage of students entering family medicine has declined by about half over the past decade. AAFP President Ted Epperly said, "America won't be cared for properly by having a million radiologists and dermatologists." He added, "We're producing the wrong doctor work force for America" (LaMendola, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 11/17).
  
  
• Maine: The Bangor Daily News on Wednesday examined the shortage of rheumatologists in Maine. According to Sidney Block -- one of about a dozen rheumatologists in the state -- specialized care for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, gout, chronic fatigue syndrome and Sjogren's syndrome will be difficult to find unless the problem is addressed. According to Block, several factors are contributing to the shortage. He said that the specialty does not pay as well as some others and that rural states such as Maine have more difficulty recruiting new physicians (Haskell, Bangor Daily News, 11/19).
  
  
• Texas: Texas will need an additional 40,000 doctors by 2025 to keep up with a growing population, particularly among Hispanics, the San Antonio Express-News reports. About 20,000 of the 37,000 doctors currently practicing in Texas will have retired or left their practices over the next 17 years, Karl Eschbach, state demographer and director of the Institute of Demographic and Socioeconomic Research, said Thursday at the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Third Annual Health Care Summit. Access to care is a particularly "dire" issue for Hispanics, who often work for small businesses and are disproportionately uninsured, the Express-News reports. Hispanics make up the largest group of uninsured people in Texas border cities. About 66% of Hispanic workers are employed by companies that provide employer-sponsored health insurance, Roland Angel, professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin, said. In comparison, more than 80% of blacks and whites have employer-sponsored health insurance (Poling, San Antonio Express-News, 11/14).

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