States With More Physicians Have Better-Quality Health Care

As efforts begin to expand the physician workforce in response to deepening shortages of physicians, attention has focused on the value of what physicians do. There is a widely held belief that states with more specialists have poorer-quality health care, while quality is better in states with more family physicians. This is myth. Quality is better in states with more physicians, both specialists and family physicians. Access depends on total physician supply, irrespective of specialty. Population density, per capita income, and regional factors all influence this relationship, but the data are unequivocal. [Health Affairs 28, no. 1 (2009): w91-w102 (published online 4 December 2008; 10.1377/hlthaff.28.1.w91)]