Do We Need More Primary Care Doctors?

There's a new commentary on CNN about the topic, but this one takes a different view from an earlier CNN commentary (by Clayton Christensen, Jason Hwang and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan) that argued that we don't really need more doctors in the U.S.

Ted Epperly, M.D. is a family physician and president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). He points out that the model of the PCMH (Patient-Centered Medical Home) calls for a primary care physician to coordinate all that care and we already have a significant shortage of PCPs.

If we are to see some major healthcare reform occur in this country, then perhaps we don't need more doctors but we need to see a significant shift in the percentage of physicians who choose primary care over other specialties.