The country is facing a general practitioner shortage because most medical students are pursuing more more lucrative specialties.

And now, new research from the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy explores the why behind this shortage, and they do that by looking at Medicare.

In this study, Dr. Paul Ginsberg and others look at the way that Medicare pays for services and subsidizes medical students’ graduate education and they found there’s definitely dollars and cents to this.

The Show spoke with Ginsberg more about it.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to specify the profession experiencing a shortage.

More Stories From KJZZ

• Dr. Joseph Sirven: The Price Of Medical Education
• 'Game-Changing:' Medical School Coming To Phoenix Park Central Mall