Final Paper Primary Care Physician Shortage: Increased Demand and Insufficient Supply

The American Health Care System is in desperate need of reform and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is attempting to reform the organization, delivery and reimbursement rates associated with the health care system. The current healthcare system enables the provision of fragmented, uncoordinated care, which has contributed to its high costs. Furthermore, the development of the healthcare system has led to a system that is not strongly based on primary care; but is rather based on healthcare freedom, whereby patients are able to see specialists prior to seeing their primary care physician. The result of this system and the much higher income made by specialists is a shortage of primary care physicians. The implementation of the ACA and “the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 has the potential to reestablish primary care as the foundation of the U.S. health care delivery system ” (Goodson, 742). However, the current shortage of primary care physicians and the fact that the ACA will increase the demand for more primary care physicians pose significant obstacles to the implementation of the proposed health care reforms. This paper will first describe and analyze the current primary care physician shortage and the factors that have contributed to this shortage. Next, it will describe projections regarding the future primary care physician shortage and, in so doing, will demonstrate that the current shortage will be exacerbated by both demographic changes and the increased demand for PCPs created by the ACA’s encouraged utilization of primary care. Lastly, this paper will analyze the incentives put in place by the ACA to encourage augmentation of the primary care physician workforce. Finally, this paper will argue that the ACA incentives alone will not solve the primary care physician shortage and that additional strategies are needed