A new report by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), released on Friday, predicts an exacerbated doctor shortage in the U.S. over the next 15 years, at a time when Black and Latinx enrollment in medical schools is on the decline, USA Today reported.
Authors of the report expect there to be a shortage of up to 139,000 physicians as the population of retirement-age Americans climbs 45% by 2033, according to USA Today.
This is of particular concern to communities of color. Studies show minority patients benefit from seeing minority doctors. But African Americans made up only 2.6% of doctors in 2019 and 7.3% of students enrolled in medical school in 2020. Only 3.8% of doctors were Latinx in 2019, even though the report projects that the fast-growing Latinx community will need 45,000 new doctors.