By Jasmine Evans
With additional portions of the Affordable Care Act going into effect later this year, one serious issue could stymie the benefits for a large majority of new patients: a huge influx of new patients and a lack of doctors to care for them. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the influx of patients will lead to a nationwide shortage of 45,000 primary-care physicians (PCPs) by 2020. Without easy access to primary care, vulnerable populationsincluding the elderly and low-income underrepresented groupsstand to suffer from costly and unnecessary hospitalizations.
The problem is expected to be severe in large urban areas like New York, where officials are already sounding the alarm. In 2014,the state anticipates hundreds of thousands of new patients under the New York Health Exchange and Affordable Care Act. The influx of patients has sparked worries in the medical community that patient numbers will overwhelm PCPs, and that doctors won’t understand the needs of vulnerable populations. Additionally, a shortage of doctors will also leave them with less time to spend with each patient, a problem that could have additional effects on members of underrepresented groups and low-income patients, who research has shown are less likely to open up to doctors if they don’t feel understood.
