WASHINGTON, Feb 3, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The president of the American
College of Physicians says the state of healthcare in the United States is poor.
Dr. Jeffrey P. Harris said at the annual State of the Nation's Health Care
briefing that there are too many uninsured and underinsured people and there are
too few primary care physicians.
"The problems are big, so the solutions must also be big," Harris said in a
statement.
The American College of Physicians provided recommendations on how President
Barack Obama and Congress can take immediate, sustained and dramatic steps to
provide affordable and accessible healthcare to all Americans and provide every
American with access to a primary care physician.
The Institute of Medicine, a private, non-governmental organization, recently
announced that the United States needs 16,000 more primary care physicians just
to meet the needs of currently underserved areas. The shortage will grow to
40,000 or more physicians, assuming current rates of health insurance coverage,
two recent studies revealed, Harris said.
"Giving all Americans an insurance card will not guarantee that everyone will
have access to care," Harris emphasized. "There are not enough primary care
physicians to care for them."
When health insurance coverage was recently expanded to nearly 95 percent in
Massachusetts, some waits for getting a primary care physician were as long as
100 days, Harris added.
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization
and the second-largest U.S. physician group.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International