Doctors: 'State of U.S. healthcare poor'

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The president of the American College of Physicians says the state of healthcare in the United States is poor.

Dr. Jeffrey P. Harris said at the annual State of the Nation's Health Care briefing that there are too many uninsured and underinsured people and there are too few primary care physicians.

"The problems are big, so the solutions must also be big," Harris said in a statement.

The American College of Physicians provided recommendations on how President Barack Obama and Congress can take immediate, sustained and dramatic steps to provide affordable and accessible healthcare to all Americans and provide every American with access to a primary care physician.

The Institute of Medicine, a private, non-governmental organization, recently announced that the United States needs 16,000 more primary care physicians just to meet the needs of currently underserved areas. The shortage will grow to 40,000 or more physicians, assuming current rates of health insurance coverage, two recent studies revealed, Harris said.

"Giving all Americans an insurance card will not guarantee that everyone will have access to care," Harris emphasized. "There are not enough primary care physicians to care for them."

When health insurance coverage was recently expanded to nearly 95 percent in Massachusetts, some waits for getting a primary care physician were as long as 100 days, Harris added.

The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest U.S. physician group.