Burnout, low pay and mounting administrative burdens: Massachusetts has a shortage of primary care physicians and lawmakers have proposed a range of long-term solutions, including increasing spending on primary care, creating a task force and expanding the role of physician assistants.
Although the state has the highest number of physicians per capita, it also has the fifth lowest share of all physicians who work in primary care. Also, as older doctors age out, fewer new physicians are going into primary care, according to the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission.