Primary Care Doctor Shortage in New Mexico

KOB TV - Right now in New Mexico there are not enough primary care doctors. There is a shortage of 400 to 600 full time doctors and it's a problem that affects thousand of New Mexicans everyday. "I went pretty much a full year without having a primary care doctor," said Andrea Leathers-Lopez. She says finding a doctor was a tough task. "Pretty much all of the providers in the UNM system, it's booked, it's really hard to get established with anybody, even getting in with residents, that are first starting, its really hard to get in," she said. It's not just the UNM Health System. "Where as the nation increasingly needs a larger and larger number of primary care doctors, the supply is going down," said UNM professor Dr. Authur Kaufman. Dr. Kaufman says better incentives and a higher income are driving medical student to become specialty doctors and with an aging population and many uninsured, primary care doctors are in higher demand. "We have a population that is uninsured and when they suddenly get medicaid under the new Affordabilty Care Act, that will kick in, in 2014, the demand for primary care will be huge, but the supply will not be there," Kaufman said. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Primary Care Doctor Shortage in New Mexico