Rural Doctors

This is the side of health care you normally don't hear about, unless you happen to watch it on PBS.

Why The U.S. Faces A Shortage of Rural Physicians

You see, in our health care system, med students who go into Primary Care practice actually take a pay cut compared to those going into specialty areas of medicine. This is why so many med students are graduating to become specialists and almost none are going into Primary Care. After the cost of med school for Primary Care, it takes longer to pay for med school student loans, plus be able to handle the financial burdens of having an office staff, plus the added expense of malpractice insurance. This is also why you see so many doctors who share their practices.

The discounted rates demanded by Medicare have put a lot of doctors out of work, because they can no longer afford to run a practice anymore. The cost of malpractice insurance alone as forced a lot of OB/GYN specialists to leave that field of practice.