Primary care shortage

More articles to take a look at. This one is about the shortage of primary care docs, and what amounts to the lack of a plan to actually do anything about it (memo to President Obama: saying "we need to do something to make sure there are enough primary care physicians in the future" does not constitute a plan. Nor do vague ideas without details). It would take a special kind of person to go into primary care these days -- the hours are terrible, the acuity is low, and the pay is poor by physician standards (no minor point when most of us are looking at between $150k and $200k in debt on graduation). There are a special few out there for whom primary care, whether in pediatrics, internal medicine, or family practice, is a calling. It's something they want to do, not for the purposes of logic but for some greater reason, and I greatly respect them for that. However, unless someone comes up with an honest-to-goodness plan to make primary care more attractive for new docs, the "special few" will remain just that -- few.

Once again, thoughts and comments would be appreciated.

Peace and God bless!