With many parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act having gone into effect, there are millions of newly insured patients waiting to receive care. One of the focuses of the healthcare law is preventive care. Here are some statistics on the state of primary care provision in the United States from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
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1. As of 2010, there were 208,807 physicians, 55,625 nurse practitioners and 30,402 physician assistants practicing primary care in the U.S., making just under 295,000 health professionals in the specialty in total.
2. Among physicians, while family physicians and general practitioners were more likely to both be located in rural areas and be present in a number proportional to local populations (in 2010), general internal medicine and general pediatrics practitioners were located mostly in urban areas.
3. Both nurse practitioners and physician assistants in were more likely to work in rural areas, and nurse practitioners and physician assistants were nearly two times as likely as the same professionals from all specialties to work rurally.
To read statistics on proportions of primary care practitioners in the United States visit the AHRQ's website.