20-Year Prospect

20-Year Prospect

Do we need general practitioners? Heck, yeah, we do. The U.S. Census Bureau projects there'll be an additional 100 million people living in this country by 2060, and they're all going to need someone to turn to when they have the sniffles.

But will there actually be any general practitioners in 2060? That's the tricky bit.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, we'll be short by more than 65,000 primary care physicians by 2025. That spells serious trouble for those folks who just want a prescription for an antibiotic, thank you very much.

Why is the U.S. running low on general practitioners? The reasons are many: GPs work as many, if not more, hours than specialists; the money sucks (compared to what specialists bill); and there's a metric ton of red tape to wade through on a daily basis.

Here's hoping the powers that be figure out a way to make general practitioning a more attractive gig, otherwise we're going to be in serious trouble when we get hit by the Great Strep Throat Epidemic of 2030.