U.S. physician shortages are expected to increase substantially as aging doctors retire or extreme workloads push them out. "As the aging population's need for care grows, retirement and burnout are both driving swaths of health care workers out of the field, fueling a crisis that shows no signs of stopping,"  reports Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech of The Hill. "The country is expected to suffer a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians in the next 12 years, according to a 2019 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges." American Medical Association President Jesse Ehrenfeld told O'Connell-Domenech: "When people don't have access to routine primary care and preventative services [due to no physician access], they live sicker and die younger. . . . These are things that are only going to get worse as we put more pressure on the physician workforce." In many rural areas, the lack of doctors is already a stark reality.

Read the full article about physician shortages by Heather Close at The Rural Blog.