Is money the reason for a primary care doctor shortage?
The shortage of primary care doctors in America is a “major problem,” says Dr. Lucy McBride.
“We don’t prioritize preventative care. We prioritize sick care,” she told Horizons host William Brangham.
While a primary care doctor can help prevent health issues, McBride, a primary care physician in Washington, D.C., says medical students are more incentivized to become specialists because they make more. She noted that primary care physicians are reimbursed “at a much lower rate than specialists.”
“If you’re forced to see a patient every 15 minutes, and you’re underpaid and you’re faced with a waiting room of patients who are upset at you for making them wait, understandably,” McBride said, “you’re going to pick interventional cardiology or a specialty that treats two square inches of the body, instead of choosing a field where the relational aspects of care are the most important, yet are not valued according to our payment system.”
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