Graduating more MDs is great. But it won’t be enough to narrow the Golden State’s doctor shortage.
California doesn’t have enough doctors. This year, the state met just 54% of its primary care needs. It would take 881 more physicians to eliminate all the state’s designated primary care shortage areas, where more than 5.8 million Californians currently reside.
California’s leaders are trying to conjure up more physicians. In late September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation to establish a new medical school with public and private funding in Kern County, which spans Bakersfield and the southern Central Valley. The San Joaquin Valley, with just 39 primary care docs per 100,000 population, ranks just ahead of the Inland Empire, with 35 per 100,000, as areas of acute physician shortage.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
California needs more than medical schools to solve doctor shortage
Sally C. Pipes
Graduating more MDs is great. But it won’t be enough to narrow the Golden State’s doctor shortage.
California doesn’t have enough doctors. This year, the state met just 54% of its primary care needs. It would take 881 more physicians to eliminate all the state’s designated primary care shortage areas, where more than 5.8 million Californians currently reside.
California’s leaders are trying to conjure up more physicians. In late September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation to establish a new medical school with public and private funding in Kern County, which spans Bakersfield and the southern Central Valley. The San Joaquin Valley, with just 39 primary care docs per 100,000 population, ranks just ahead of the Inland Empire, with 35 per 100,000, as areas of acute physician shortage.
Read the entire op-ed in The Mercury News.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.