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Primary Care In Southern Illinois And Western Kentucky, Matthew J. Crabtree

Honors College Theses

There is a major physician shortage occurring across the United States as of 2023 and it is expected to get worse over the next five to ten years. A significant portion of the shortage is predicted to consist of primary care physicians in rural areas. Data on factors that affect primary care visits like rurality, household income, health insurance coverage, non-communicable disease, and primary care physician prevalence were analyzed from the regions of Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky. Health coverage was found to be average to above average in the two regions. However, almost all counties included in the study …