Shortage of primary-care physicians seen as driving many patients to emergency departments.

USA Today reports, "Uninsured patients aren't the only ones using the [emergency department (ED)] for non-urgent care. With too few primary-care doctors to go around, many patients turn to the [ED] when they can't get an appointment with their regular physician, says Sandra Schneider, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians." Ted Epperly, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, pointed out that "in some ways, insurance payments contribute to the shortage...by discouraging physicians from going into primary care." Medicare "pays doctors far more to perform procedures than to monitor a patient's overall health, Epperly says. In the past decade, only 10 percent of new doctors -- who graduate from medical school with an average of $140,000 in student loans -- have gone into primary care," according to Epperly.