Just try to find a primary care doc when on Medicare

[Read an interesting, developing discussion of the article here at http://minnieapolis.newsvine.com/_news/2008/09/13/1863658-where-have-all-the-doctors-gone-just-try-to-find-a-primary-care-doc-when-on-medicare?last=1221363391#last_1 ]

He needed a neurologist. But nobody would see him unless we had a primary care doctor, and we couldn’t find one, Donna says. We pounded the phones day after day, going through the whole list [of primary care doctors] in Salem. But everyone who accepted new patients would not accept people on Medicare. The Brys’ experience is not an isolated case. At least 56 million Americans, almost one in five of the population, are now medically disenfranchised —having inadequate access to primary care physicians because of shortages in their area—according to Access Denied, a county-by-county study by the National Assn. of Community Health Centers and the Robert Graham Center.---
[read whole article at http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/caregiving/articles/where_have_all_the_doctors_gone_.html?NLC-WBLTR-CTRL&DET=F2-91208 ]