1) The WSJ writes that a significant portion of the public is reluctant to be treated by anyone other than a doctor.
My take: Some brush off the primary care shortage, saying that the demand will be picked up by NPs and PAs.
Wrong.
The fact that the majority of mid-levels practice proficient primary care is not the point. The public reluctance to be treated by anyone other than a physician is enough to kill off this “solution” to the primary care shortage.
As an aside, who’s to say that mid-levels even want to go into primary care? The latest studies I’ve read suggest that PAs are more inclined to enter surgical and medical sub-specialties instead.
2) The Canadian province of Quebec is contemplating charging patients a $25 co-pay for office visits.
My take: Cost-shifting to patients in a single-payer utopia Canada? Despite the adulation wonks shower on the Canadian system, it does not address the problem of rising health care costs. That is something every country is struggling with. I think even the wonks will admit that.
3) The primary care shortage is temporarily being alleviated by foreign-trained physicians.
My take: Relying on international medical graduates (IMGs) to solve our primary care woes is short-sighted and misguided. If IMGs had their druthers, they would rather be specialists in urban, academic medical centers.
I suspect that very few IMGs would stay in an underserved primary care practice for the long term, and would re-locate the first chance they get to a more “desirable” practice.
Call it a weak band-aid solution over a gaping wound of a problem.
