Georgia faces a dire physician shortage in the near future if we don’t act
Why medicine? Like many current or future physicians, we spend countless hours considering our “why.”
For most of us, a deep commitment to service, a curiosity for the unknown or unsolved and a knack for understanding human biology underpin our calling to medicine.
When we see or read stories about physicians leaving clinical practice to pursue alternative careers, leaving behind years of training, mountains of student loans and countless patient connections, we are devastated that so many are losing their passion for this calling.
And even more troubling, we worry about what this means for our patients, already navigating a complex healthcare system, and how those of us remaining in a depleted workforce can continue to meet their needs.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) projects a national physician shortage of 12% by 2038; Georgia’s position is considerably more dire, with a calculated Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) shortage of 14,270 physicians or roughly one-third of the state’s demand.
These numbers have not gone unnoticed — the new UGA School of Medicine announced its launch in February 2026, while the Mercer School of Medicine announced its 2026 Primary Care Accelerated Track scholars in April.
Savannah will add over 100 new residency positions, funded by legislative funding reallocated during the 2026 session, in a targeted move to increase the physician workforce in the Southeast.
Meanwhile, in May, Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 427 into law to provide a pathway for internationally trained physicians to practice in underserved corners of the state.
Physicians say they are experiencing ‘moral injury’
A groundbreaking March 2026 report by Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) provides an explanation for the shortage politicians are so desperately trying to counteract.
A staggering 69% (838/1,207) of physicians surveyed had contemplated leaving (27%, 320) or had actually left a position (42%, 518) due to the experience of moral injury. Moral injury is defined as the psychological distress sustained from a physician’s inability to perform their professional responsibilities due to institutional and systemic barriers.
Indeed, more than a third of surveyed physicians from PNHP’s study reported having to care for a greater number of patients than they felt was safe.
Significantly, an equal number reported challenges in optimally caring for their patients due to cost-reducing measures enforced by healthcare administrators or insurers.
Interviewees emphasized a constant state of frustration and sense of “complicity” in a system that prioritizes profit over people. Testimonials from qualitative interviews conducted as a part of the study emphasized a discordance between current practice and patient-centered motives that initially brought physicians into the profession.
An emergency medicine physician noted, “(Health systems) are more interested in wealthy people that have good insurance that are going to bring them money.”
Most physicians are unhappy with a system that fails patients, as one family medicine physician stated, “I didn’t realize I became an ICD-technologist … (T)hat’s not what I got into medicine for, to learn all this nonsense.”
Underinsurance and/or lack of insurance was cited as a key source of moral injury in interviews, worsened by its reinforcement of systemic racial disparities in healthcare access.
These findings reframe the healthcare crisis and physician shortage in Georgia. Nationally, we rank in the bottom third of all states in health outcomes and in physician supply.
Medicaid expansion and education investments would help
Over 18% (2.2 million) of Georgians are insured through Medicaid, and the state is also one of 10 that have not expanded Medicaid through the ACA, contributing to a high prevalence of uninsurance.
This gap will be widened by the passage of HR1 (One Big Beautiful Bill) that is projected to result in nearly 500,000 Georgians losing health coverage by 2034 and cost over $10 billion in uncompensated care.
While it is true that increasing the workforce supply will distribute patient burden across a greater number of providers, challenges with under- and uninsurance will contribute to moral injury, further risking attrition of trained professionals in underserved regions.
Without ameliorating the causes underlying physician moral injury, the workforce training policies put forth in the past few months are unlikely to reverse the physician exodus. We need bold, sweeping reform to ensure our physician workforce remains intact.
Immediately, that means expanding Medicaid and funding medical education/graduate medical education (GME) programs.
In the long term, we must prioritize a system that eliminates profit motives, guarantees universal access to care and returns our profession to its foundational, patient-centered values– and that can only be accomplished through single-payer healthcare reform.
Hridaya Shah is a medical student based in Georgia, passionate about expanding access to health insurance and addressing health disparities in her community.
Jack Bernard is chair of the Fayette County Board of Health and on the executive board of the Georgia Public Health Association. He is a retired senior vice president for a national healthcare corporation.
Dr. Toby Terwilliger is an Atlanta-based physician who sits on the board of directors of Physicians for a National Health Program.
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