Health Care

States face ObamaCare doctor shortage

Good luck finding a doctor under ObamaCare.

New York and most other states already face a shortage of physicians and won’t have enough primary-care MDs to serve the millions of newly insured patients, data reviewed by The Post reveal.

State Health Commissioner Dr. Nirav Shah admitted the shortage presents a “potential for a real crisis” in medically underserved areas when the Affordable Care Act kicks in. He expects a million more New Yorkers to obtain insurance cards.

But whether the cards will provide them access to timely health care is in serious doubt.

“We are short 1,100 primary-care doctors across the state of New York today. Now imagine another million people flooding the system. Where are they going to get primary care?” Shah told the state Minority Health Council. “That is a potential for a real crisis.”

Even an Obama administration official told The Post that the doctor shortage is a serious issue. While the difficulty enrolling for insurance on the federal Web site is a temporary problem, the scramble to find doctors will be a more formidable challenge.

“There aren’t enough doctors. There aren’t enough nurses,” the White House insider said.

A study by the Kaiser Family Health Foundation found that only 40 percent of primary-care needs are being met in New York because of the shortage, among the lowest rates in the country.

In New Jersey, only about half the need is being met. In Connecticut, it’s just 15 percent.

That means 2.3 million New Yorkers “do not have sufficient access to primary care,” said Daniel Lowenstein, spokesman for the Primary Care Development Corp., citing state data.

“If history is any judge, there will be problems with demand. It could present problems for all patients,” Lowenstein said.

One will be increased waiting times to see a doctor, he said.

“We are not training enough doctors to get into primary care. There’s not nearly capacity to build new facilities.”

Massachusetts — the state President Obama cites as a model for providing universal health care — has been overwhelmed by the surge of new enrollees since approving its health-insurance expansion six years ago.

The Massachusetts Medical Society issued a report in July that found half of the primary-care doctors refused to accept new patients because they’re fully booked. And the average waiting times to see a family doctor and internist after requesting an appointment is 39 and 50 days, respectively.

“While we’ve achieved success in securing insurance coverage for nearly all of our residents, coverage doesn’t guarantee access to care,” said the group’s president, Ronald Dunlap. “The concern is that limited and delayed access can lead to undesirable results, as people will seek more costly care at emergency rooms, delay care too long or not seek care at all.”

For his part, Dr. Shah, the New York health commissioner, said the state is doing all it can to increase the supply of primary-care doctors, including programs to forgive college loans and other incentives.

“We’ve put millions of dollars into these programs,” he said.

Shah also said New York will use a chunk of the $10 billion expected from the federal government to implement ObamaCare to open more medical clinics and lure more doctors into preventive medicine.