The demand for primary care practitioners in America continues to grow, but alarmingly, California remains unprepared to deal with the growing demand. Falling short to national benchmarks, most regions in California suffer physician shortages. Aside from healthcare policies, evidence suggests that in the coming decade the physician-patient gap will exasperate even more so given the fact that about a third of California’s primary care physicians are over the age of 55 (UCSF 2017). Underprivileged communities are expected to get hit especially hard by high levels of physician retirement, since due to poverty and its implications they already grapple with inadequate healthcare and lack sufficient medical professionals to provide adequate services.
