As for the shortage, as long as the medical schools take large contributions from pharmaceutical companies, we will remain in "sickness management" mode, and no amount of doctors providing sickness management will ever be enough.

There is no money in being a GP in the medical profession, by comparison with specialties, because the GP often must spend more time with the patient and reimbursement is based more on procedure and diagnosis. But alas, it looks like we are in for another federal gov't program to "save" us. There is a suggestion afloat that the gov't give incentives ($$) for medical students to become GPs, so there will be one more thing to add to the cost of our sickness management system.

I know of a chiropractic college that initiated measures about 20 years ago to begin training their doctors to address the typical cases a general practitioner sees. This was in response to the high specialization pathway of medicine and the already dwindling GP numbers. Other colleges have followed suit. Naturopathy has made significant contributions as well. In keeping with the socialism pathway of this Administration, I fear we will continue to ignore health innovators who would bring us back to common sense principles and will instead opt for gov't inducements. Besides, the chiropractic oath would not abide abortion and chiropractic physicians still take the oath. Once abortion and euthanasia became part of medical practice in many places, the Hippocratic oath was eliminated or modified for political correctness. Again, once compromise is allowed in, we start down the proverbial slippery slope.

No one can legislate away conscience. We must simply stand fast. No, it's not fair, but we knew we would be marginalized. We can and must protest–as conscience of the State–but we don't look to gov't for our salvation.