A Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation found that “many of the reported provider actions taken in response to malpractice pressures were not substantiated or did not widely affect access to health care … some reports of physicians relocating to other states, retiring, or closing practices were not accurate or involved relatively few physicians.”i In fact, data from the AMA shows that physician numbers have been increasing across the board for many years.
- The number of doctors is increasing. The total number of physicians in the U.S. rose to yet another record high in 2008, the most recent year for which data are available. There were 954,244 physicians in the U.S. in 2008, nearly 13,000 more than the year before.
- The number of doctors is increasing faster than population growth. The increase in physicians outpaced the increase in population once again. The number of physicians per 100,000 population is at an all-time high of 309. The increase of physician numbers compared to population growth has climbed steadily for decades. There are now twice as many physicians per 100,000 population as there were when the AMA began tracking figures in the 1960s.
- The ratio of doctors to population is higher in states WITHOUT caps. The number of physicians per 100,000 population was 21 percent higher in states WITHOUT caps than in states with caps in 2008 (346 v. 285).
