Health bills in Congress will not fix doctor shortage

As Congress moves to expand health insurance coverage to millions of Americans, it's doing little to ensure there will be enough primary care doctors to meet the expected surge in demand for treatment, experts say. "I don't see anything in the legislation that will greatly increase the primary care pipeline," Russell Robertson, MD, chairman of the Council on Graduate Medical Education, told Kaiser Health News. In addition to making sure patients have access to care, increasing the number and proportion of primary care doctors is crucial to lowering health costs, he said.