Facing Michigan's primary care physician shortage

By the year 2020, the Association of American Medical Colleges predicts the U.S. will be short more than 45,000 primary care physicians. With the likely influx of hundreds of thousands of new patients due to the Affordable Care Act, not to mention the aging Baby Boomer generation, this shortage has the potential to wreak havoc on our health care system over the next decade.Dr. Julie Phillips is an associate professor of Family Medicine at MSU’s College of Human Medicine and leads the Family Medicine clerkship here in Lansing. She sees the effects of the shortage in Michigan, especially in rural communities and in underserved urban communities, and she thinks the situation will get worse.