A handful of Democratic senators are pushing to change pending health care legislation so that it would help increase the country's stock of primary care doctors, heeding warnings that the bill may exacerbate the difficulty some Americans already have in finding a doctor.

More than 30 million Americans would get health insurance under the health care overhaul that passed through the House and a similar bill moving forward in the Senate. If that does indeed happen, many previously uninsured people who haven't had a regular doctor before will need a primary care physician. Demand would also likely increase for nurse practitioners and general surgeons.

But pressure to keep down the legislation's cost led Democrats to exclude one way of alleviating the projected shortage. Medical colleges, backed by some Democrats, want funding for 15,000 more slots for graduate medical residencies in primary care and general surgery. The government currently pays part of the cost for such residencies through Medicare.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid co-sponsored a separate bill to do just that this spring. But when doctors pressed him to include the measure in the broader health care overhaul he crafted, the Nevada Democrat balked because the estimated $10 billion to $15 billion cost over a decade would inflate the bill's overall price too much.

Now, some Democrats are preparing to press for a more limited expansion of residency slots once the Senate begins hashing out the bill on the floor next week. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York plans to introduce an amendment that would add about 2,000 residency spots to the current 100,000. The amendment would give first priority to primary-care doctors and general surgeons.

Continue reading at the Wall Street Journal.