Alabama needs rural doctors-Obamacare repeal threatens last remaining rural residency program{al.com

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By Anna Claire Vollers
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on March 27, 2015 at 8:31 AM, updated March 30, 2015 at 10:48 AM

Alabama desperately needs primary care physicians, particularly in rural swaths of the state where some residents have to drive as far as two hours for something as simple as a prenatal checkup.

Primary care or family medicine doctors are the front lines of medical care. They're the family doctors who can diagnose the flu or deliver a baby. They see patients from birth through old age, and are often are the first to catch medical conditions that can require further treatment.

Now the only residency program in the state that trains primary care physicians in a strictly rural setting to serve rural areas is in danger of shutting its doors because its funding is in jeopardy.

Why? Because Congress may repeal the Affordable Care Act.
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Alabama will need, by one conservative estimate, 612 new primary care physicians by the year 2030 just to maintain the status quo.
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more: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/03/alabama_needs_rural_doctors_ob.html