April 21st, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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It’s well documented on this blog that the primary care shortage will only worsen once most of America has access to affordable health insurance.
As I wrote in a recent op-ed, not only will there a shortage of primary care physicians, but nurse practitioners and physician assistants won’t alleviate the problem either, mostly because they are also enticed by the lucrative allure of specialty practice. Enter the three-year primary care physician. Apparently, the fourth year of medical school was deemed expendable. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
April 14th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
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Nurse practitioners are demanding a wider scope of practice and even to be called “doctor” if they have a doctorate. And 28 states are considering giving them what they want, to which physician societies object.
Health policy analyst Jack Needleman (a Ph.D., so he gets to be called doctor, too), says the quality of care is the same. (He’s also an honorary fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.) AMA president-elect and internist Cecil B. Wilson, M.D., a Master of the American College of Physicians, (who is definitely called doctor) says the primary care shortage is a call for more physicians, not for fewer. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
April 14th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
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In a few years, every American will be required to have health insurance. As a result, the 32 million people currently uninsured will seek out a personal physician. This role typically is filled by a primary care doctor, like an internist or a family physician.
While passage of the healthcare reform bill affirmed the belief that having health insurance is a right rather than a privilege, the legislation falls short on building a healthcare system capable of absorbing the newly insured.
Universal healthcare coverage is not the same as providing universal access to medical care. Having an insurance card doesn’t guarantee that individuals can actually get care. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
November 27th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Humor, True Stories
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Sometimes it’s hard to know what kind of doctor you’d like to become. The first two years of medical school are devoted to memorizing text books, and then suddenly in third year you are expected to function as part of a team of different specialists, rotating at 2-6 week intervals. At the end of the third year you’d better have a clear sense of what kind of medicine/surgery you’d like to practice for the rest of your life. No changing your mind! (At least, that’s how the process is supposed to go.)
I asked a physician friend of mine how he came to choose family medicine as a career. I expected him to say that he liked the autonomy of figuring out conundrums on his own – to take care of the entire family and be there for them throughout the life cycle, etc… But what he actually told me was a little unexpected. Read more »
