\n\tMichelle Andrews<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTens of millions of Americans live in communities where they cannot find a doctor while others have to wait months to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in a July 19, 2023, press release<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has long been a champion of a government-sponsored \u201cMedicare for All\u201d health program to solve long-standing problems in the United States, where we pay much more for health care than people in other countries but are often sicker and have a shorter average life expectancy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, he realizes his passion project has little chance in today\u2019s political environment. \u201cWe are far from a majority in the Senate. We have no Republican support \u2026 and I\u2019m not sure that I could get half of the Democrats on that bill,\u201d Sanders said in recent remarks<\/a> to community health advocates.<\/p>\n

He has switched his focus to include, among other things, expanding the primary care workforce.<\/p>\n

Sanders introduced legislation<\/a> in July that would invest $100 billion over five years to expand community health centers and provide training for primary care doctors, nurses, dentists, and other health professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cTens of millions of Americans live in communities where they cannot find a doctor while others have to wait months to be seen,\u201d he said in a press statement<\/a> issued when the bill was introduced. He noted that this scenario not only leads to more human suffering and unnecessary deaths \u201cbut wastes tens of billions a year\u201d because people who \u201ccould not access the primary care they need\u201d often end up in emergency rooms and hospitals.<\/p>\n

Is that true? Are there really tens of millions of Americans who can\u2019t find a doctor? We decided to check it out.<\/p>\n

Our first stop was the senator\u2019s office to ask for the source of that statement. But no one answered our query.<\/p>\n

Primary Care, by the Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

So we poked around on our own. For years, academic researchers and policy experts have debated and dissected the issues surrounding the potential scarcity of primary care in the United States. \u201cPrimary care desert\u201d and \u201cprimary care health professional shortage area\u201d are terms used to evaluate the extent of the problem through data \u2014 some of which offers an incomplete impression. Across the board, however, the numbers do suggest that this is an issue for many Americans.<\/p>\n

The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortage of up to 48,000 primary care physicians<\/a> by 2034, depending on variables like retirements and the number of new physicians entering the workforce.<\/p>\n

How does that translate to people\u2019s ability to find a doctor? The federal government\u2019s Health Resources and Services Administration publishes widely referenced data that compares the number of primary care physicians in an area to its population. For primary care, if the population-to-provider ratio<\/a> is generally at least 3,500 to 1, it\u2019s considered a \u201c health professional shortage area<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on that measure<\/a>, 100 million people in the United States live in a geographic area, are part of a targeted population, or are served by a health care facility where there is a shortage of primary care providers. If they all want doctors and cannot find them, that figure would be well within Sanders\u2019 \u201ctens of millions\u201d claim.<\/p>\n

The metric is a meaningful way to measure the impact of primary care, experts said. In those areas, \u201cyou see life expectancies of up to a year less than in other areas,\u201d said Russ Phillips, a physician who is director of Harvard Medical School\u2019s Center for Primary Care. \u201cThe differences are critically important.\u201d<\/p>\n