Federal Health Care Law Could Exacerbate Existing Doctor Shortages
Published March 23, 2011
| FoxNews.com
The new health care law will add 32 million people to the rolls of the insured. But that won’t work well if they can't get access to a doctor. And many say the U.S. is facing a growing shortage of physicians.
"And that is going to ... put tremendous pressure on the system to handle all the new people that are enrolled," says Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute and author of "Why Obamacare Is Wrong for America."
The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts that by 2015, there will be a shortage of more than 62,000 doctors. By 2020, the shortage leaps to more than 91,000, and by 2025, it is more than 130,000.
One analyst likened the health care law to giving everyone a free bus pass -- but without enough buses.