An editorial published in The New York Times on December 16th says the expansion of healthcare coverage to millions of uninsured Americans under the Affordable Care Act will make the doctor shortage even worse. The author suggests the sensible solution to this crisis — particularly to address the short supply of primary care doctors — is to rely much more on nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, community members and even the patients themselves to do many of the routine tasks traditionally reserved for doctors. What the author may not know is that this solution has long been employed in the world of rural health. Read the full opinion here.
