SANTA MARIA - Dr. Michael Schrager has been practicing family medicine in the Santa Maria area for about 30 years.
"The primary care physicians that are here generally are pretty busy", Dr. Schrager says.
Schrager is concerned about the roll out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) over the next two years.
"There are not enough primary care physicians to take care of an additional 30 million newly insured people", he adds.
Its a statewide concern.
"Covered California", the state-run health insurance "marketplace" that will be up and running in October, is mandating all health plans in its system address the doctor-shortage issue now.
"There are doctor shortages now in some rural counties", says Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee, "plans that come into Covered California need to show that they've got enough doctors, nurses and hospitals to meet those patient needs."
Dr. Schrager says there are provisions in the ACA that for the first time provide incentives for new physicians to pursue primary care fields.
"Pediatrics, general internal medicine, specialties that we really need, but its going to take some time", Schrager says, "we have a large network of Community Health Centers that are in the process of trying to expand and provide some services but its difficult to attract enough primary care physicians, we're going to struggle for awhile."
Legislators in Sacramento are proposing bills that would allow nurse practitioners to provide more front-line patient care in doctor's offices.
