Is there a doctor in the house?

http://www.slate.com/id/2217146/?Gt1=38001

This article attributes the lack of enough physicians to economic factors, and the supply of physicians to government intervention. I always wonder why those who write articles about health care seem to never ask practicing physicians.

Why there are not enough doctors:

• The increased overhead associated with malpractice and paperwork make it impossible for a physician to work part-time, a situation that has been true for the past 20 years. Prior to that time it was common for aging physicians to cut back their hours.
• Medical practice can be very stressful, leading to burnout. Dealing with regulations, fears of arbitrary and expensive audits, malpractice fears, low profit margins, and constantly having to fight with the patient's managed care provider to get the patient what is best are all wearing.
• Working long hours used to be the badge of courage of physicians. Now, working more than 40 hours per week is looked at as leading to fatigue and error.
• The doctor patient relationship has been eroded by managed care, leading to less personal involvement with patients and more doctor shopping.
• Health care information grows quickly, requiring a constant commitment to keeping up to date.
• Physicians cannot see patients as fast as before due to regulations, paperwork requirements for reimbursement, and yet physicians actually spend less quality time with patients for this very reason. The patient gets less direct physician time, the physician spends more time on each patient mainly doing paperwork, and the system is less satisfying to physician and patient alike and is more inefficient. Thank managed care and CMS for that!

As in all things, market forces will determine the supply and demand. Part of the market forces are regulations and other activities that slow up the process.