Like much of the nation, Michigan is suffering from a serious medical provider shortage, and experts say it is only going to get worse. According to the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, the state is projected to have a shortage of at least 800 primary care doctors by 2030.
For patients, doctor shortages can result in an array of health care issues: longer wait times for appointments; less time with the physician once they’re in the room; longer time until a chronic or immediate health issue can be addressed; and a lack of coordination between a primary care provider and a specialist.
In an interview with the Detroit Free Press in 2023, Dr. Jean H.C. Wong, a family medicine physician at Ypsilanti Family Medicine in Ypsilanti and the director of the family medicine residency program at the University of Michigan Medical School, explained, “When it comes to family medicine, specifically, 1 in 8 medical students enter family medicine residencies every year, but the ratio needs to increase to 1 in 4 in order to help stop the primary care doctor shortage.”
A 2024 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges reported that the United States will face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036.
Lawmakers in Michigan are introducing bills that contain solutions to the shortage. House Bill 4399 and Senate Bill 268, for example, could change current licensing laws for health care practitioners to give nurse practitioners greater autonomy to provide health care services without a supervising physician. Both bills were introduced in April 2025.
A nurse practitioner is an advanced practice registered nurse. They have graduate-level training, with either a master’s or doctoral degree, and they are trained to diagnose and treat acute and chronic illnesses, prescribe medications, and order diagnostic tests.
H.B. 4399 was passed by the House Health Policy Committee in November 2025 and is currently with the House Rules Committee. S.B. 268 was referred to the Senate Committee on Regulatory Affairs, where it is under review.
“While we are able to prescribe with our own license noncontrolled substances, we require delegation of prescriptive authority for controlled substances in the state of Michigan, and that delegation has to be from a physician,” Naila Russell, legislative committee chair with the Michigan Council of Nurse Practitioners, told the Michigan Independent. “And so basically, because that means somebody outside of our profession is having to give us the authority to do something that we’re trained and educated and certified to do, it’s considered restricted practice.”
Russell noted that most nurse practitioners work in primary care, where the shortage of physicians is most acute: “The statistics are like, [the percentage is] in the high 80s of NPs are practicing in primary care, which is also very important. We know that, statistically, physicians are choosing to go into specialties and not necessarily primary care.”
According to the Center for Health Care Strategies, 58 of 83 counties in Michigan are considered dental shortage areas.
A possible solution to the shortage of dentists that also exists in Michigan is to increase the number of dental therapists, licensed, mid-level oral health professionals with similar training to physician assistants.
In January 2025, Michigan licensed its first dental therapist.
“More than 1.5 million Michiganders live in an area with a dental care shortage,” Dana Obey, that first licensed dental therapist, wrote in an op-ed for Bridge Michigan in 2024. “This lack of access is particularly prevalent in rural areas, like my hometown in West Branch and in the Upper Peninsula, where I am a proud member of the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians and where I plan to move to as soon as possible.”
According to data compiled by the Education Data Initiative in 2024, dental school students can rack up educational debt of around $296,500, while dental therapists incur about half of that amount. The dental therapy degree program at the school Obey attended, Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, Washington, costs about $113,000, according to the program’s FAQ page.
Another option to increase the number of providers in the state is to remove the current requirements for doctors trained outside of the U.S. to repeat post-graduate training in order to obtain a medical license in Michigan.
In 2025, Republican Rep. Phil Green introduced House Bill 4925, which would allow for a physician with a medical license from an international medical school to practice in Michigan. The bill is currently in a second reading in the Committee on Health Policy.
The Federation of State Medical Boards reported in January that 18 states have enacted legislation allowing internationally trained physicians full licensure without accredited North American post-graduate training, and at least 20 other states have proposed legislation to remove the domestic post-graduate training requirement. Additionally, California, New York, and Washington currently allow limited licensure for internationally trained physicians, meaning a nonpermanent or specifically authorized license.
Not everyone in health care is supportive of new ways of making up shortages of clinicians by allowing nonphysicians, including nurse practitioners, to diagnose and treat patients without physician oversight.
“While there is certainly room for improvement in the health care system, allowing non-physicians, including physician assistants, to diagnose and treat patients without any physician oversight is a step in the wrong direction,” the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians wrote in a “call to action” flyer in 2025.
“We are trained to diagnose, to manage, prescribe, and order diagnostic tests and then provide the care that our communities need,“ Russell said. “But unfortunately, there’s not standardization of practice laws within the U.S., so we kind of have this patchwork, if you look at the map.”
By Rebekah Sager for the Michigan Independent.
Broadcast version by Chrystal Blair for Michigan News Connection reporting for the Michigan Independent-Public News Service Collaboration
