Doctors More Available in Missouri Urban Areas
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- If you're looking for a doctor, you're more likely to find one in an urban area than in rural Missouri.
A report Thursday by the Missouri Hospital Association says there is an average of one primary care physician for every 962 residents in metropolitan areas of Missouri. In rural areas there is one primary care physician for every 1,776 residents.
Those doctors also tend to be older in rural areas. In metro areas, 55 percent of physicians are age 50 or older, compared with 62 percent in rural areas.
The hospital organization says those figures show that rural residents could have more difficulty finding primary care physicians when a federal health care law expands Medicaid coverage and requires most people to have health insurance beginning in 2014.
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