Healthcare Reform Impact
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is considered a huge advancement in making healthcare more affordable for Americans. However, there's still doubt about whether it will guarantee enough primary care doctors or lower healthcare costs, according to a review by the American College of Physicians (ACP). Robert B. Doherty, the ACP's senior vice president of governmental affairs, emphasizes in a paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that "the health reform law is a work in progress, not the end of the story." He points out that due to population growth and an aging society, family physicians and general internists will see their workloads increase by 29 percent from 2005 to 2025. Although the reform could eventually boost the number of primary care providers, Doherty explains that the lengthy training process means we won’t see significant changes for at least four years.