Sec. 2. Findings

267 words·~1 min read·/bill/113/s/1978/is/section-2

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Congress makes the following findings: A well prepared, effective primary care workforce can reduce health care costs and play a large role in the prevention and management of illness. A one-unit increase in primary care physicians per 10,000 population is associated with improved health outcomes such as all-cause, cancer, heart disease, and stroke mortality, as well as increased life expectancy. Primary care physicians include those trained in family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, and in some cases, gynecology.

One primary care physician will generate 6 to 23 jobs in the community served by such physician, $900,000 to $1,200,000 in wages, salaries, and benefits, and nearly $100,000 in State and local taxes. As of 2011, only 32 percent of the physician workforce is comprised of primary care and only between 16 to 18 percent of graduates of allopathic medical schools are likely to pursue a career in primary care. Primary care supply has a positive effect on the entire population, but the effect is greater in areas with higher income inequality and poverty, such as rural areas.

Only about 10 percent of physicians in America practice in rural areas while 20 percent of the United States population is located in rural areas. Geographic areas with more general and family physicians per population have lower rates of mortality and hospitalization for conditions that should be preventable or detected early, such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, and hypertension. As of May 2011, there were 6,419 primary care health professional shortage areas, comprised of 66,300,000 individuals.

It would take 17,636 practitioners to meet such individuals' need for primary care providers.