Many states don’t have enough doctors. As we’ve been reporting, Idaho has fewer physicians per capita than every state in the nation except Mississippi.
And the shortage of doctors will likely get worse before it gets better, as physicians from the baby boom generation get ready to retire. At least one-third of all doctors in each of the 50 states are 55 or older. In Idaho, nearly 42 percent of physicians are over the age of 55.
University of Washington researcher Susan Skillman says the aging workforce means retirement will soon take its toll. “We have great concern about whether the number of providers we have now can be replaced,” Skillman says, “let alone meet this growing demand” for health care services.
It isn’t just that older doctors will be retiring. There’s also a generational shift in mentality going on. Click here to continue reading and to explore the data...