America is on track to face a shortage of between 46,000 and 90,000 physicians by 2025 and Obamacare is one of the primary reasons.
A new report by the Association of American Medical Colleges, released Tuesday, projects shortages in all areas of medical care thanks to demographics and the industry changes that came with the Affordable Care Act.
“The doctor shortage is real – it’s significant – and it’s particularly serious for the kind of medical care that our aging population is going to need,” AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, MD, said in a news release.
The study estimates a shortage of 12,000-31,000 primary care physicians, and a shortfall of 28,000-63,000 non-primary care physicians, most significantly among surgical specialists.
“The trends from these data are clear — the physician shortage will grow over the next 10 years under every likely scenario,” Kirch said. “Because training a doctor takes between five and 10 years, we must act now, in 2015, if we are going to avoid serious physician shortages in 2025.”
The Affordable Care Act has had a real impact in multiple ways.
For one, the study notes, it has increased the number of high-risk patients who will seek healthcare, as well as increase the demand for more specialized services. It also complicates the payment process and puts forth new regulations, which impacts interest from doctors both old and new.
