Health Care Reform Exemplifies Importance of Primary Care

Oct. 8, 2012 - PRLog -- Hundreds of health professions students will celebrate National Primary Care Week (NPCW), a project of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), aimed at raising awareness of the need for primary care physicians and their impact on underserved populations.

This year, AMSA is partnering with Primary Care Progress (PCP), a grassroots non-profit with twenty chapters across the country that seeks to increase the primary care workforce and to build future leaders in the field. AMSA and PCP are collaborating on the programming, outreach, media and evaluation components of NPCW.

“The shortage of primary care physicians is about to be exacerbated by heath care reform,” says Vidhi Doshi, NPCW coordinator. “There’s an estimated 31 million additional Americans that will gain access to health insurance under the new legislation. Our diligent efforts to insure all Americans will be wasted if there are no primary care providers to care for patients.”

America's medical schools are seeing a steady increase in first-year enrollment numbers. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the first-year medical school enrollment will increase by nearly 30 percent in 2016-17 from 2002-03 enrollment statistics.

However, the number of U.S. medical students opting for primary care careers still does not meet the need for the recently passed legislation. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will bring an additional 32 million people into the health care system by 2014.

In addition, the country faces a baby boom population that is moving into Medicare and a pool of practicing physicians that includes one out of three planning to retire in the next five years. Primary care professionals supported by Medicare are also constrained by the federal government freezing financial support for residency training in 1997—preventing a greater increase in residency training positions.

“There's never been a more important time for the full primary care team to come together with a united voice to ensure all Americans have access to high value primary care;  we believe trainees are a critical member of that team,” says Dr. Andrew Morris-Singer, president and founder of Primary Care Progress.

“As the next generation of physicians, we have a duty to ensure that our patients receive the best care possible,” says Dr. Elizabeth Wiley, MD, JD, MPH, AMSA’s national president. “Over the last decade, AMSA’s NPCW has been highly successful at highlighting the importance of primary care for the health of this nation.”

NPCW is funded in part by the AMSA Foundation through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For more information, please visit: http://voicesforprimarycare.org/.

About the American Medical Student Association
AMSA is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. Founded in 1950, AMSA is a student-governed, non-profit organization committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training. To learn more about AMSA, our strategic priorities, or joining the organization, please visit us online at www.amsa.org/.

About Primary Care Progress
Primary Care Progress is a 501 (c)(3) national nonprofit. PCP is a growing network of medical providers, health professional trainees, policy pundits, advocates, and educators. We are a home to everyone under the primary care umbrella- and anyone else-who cares about the future of primary care in this country. Our members are united by a new vision for revitalizing the primary care workforce pipeline through strategic local advocacy that promotes primary care and transforms care delivery and training in academic settings.