Current Active Health Care Policy Decisions

Primary Care Years: New Measures of Total Workforce Contribution

Head to Head: Physician Assistants in 2000 Compared to Family Physicians in State and National Location

A number of health policy decisions are active at the current time.

Expanding graduate medical education positions such that fewer are forced to take family medicine as a second or third choice would be a disaster for the lower and middle income people in most need of care, especially the Community Health Centers reporting great and growing shortages. Further GME positions would move family medicine choice down from 7% or 8% to 5 or 6% from US MD Grads. Osteopathic sources and Caribbean sources would not be able to add much acutely. International sources, especially for rural practice are drying up as new Visa programs bypass the J-1 visa obligation.
Generic medical school expansions are not likely to improve rural or underserved distribution or choice of family medicine. Again only 1 in 100,000 per year is found in FP, just admit more non-FP types.Family Medicine Standards and Constants
Specific expansions of generic rural born medical students are likely to increase distribution of rural specialists, but will not impact numbers of family physicians.
Specific expansions of generic lower income origin admissions are likely to improve underserved physician distributions, but again not with a change in family medicine.
Expansions involving younger, higher scoring students, or elite medical schools is not likely to improve primary care, rural careers, or underserved locations. Elite expansions will graduate more to concentrate in major medical centers where the physicians with these characteristics have 84% or more concentration already compared to 72% for the nation.
Schools, states, and programs desiring more family physicians will have to go deeper into the individual factors involved. Selecting for rural origin or underserved origin and also selecting for specific characteristics such as service orientation, people focus, or obstacles overcome may well result in a concentration of family physicians. Specific family medicine emphasis and training may also be important.
Superselection - more than just rural, or lower income

Legislative and Health Policy

Family Medicine Central: National Comparisons of Workforce

Physician Workforce Studies