Why not eliminate this anachronistic charade of the general practitioner and use nurse practitioners and physician assistants to fill the gap? This is already happening in rural areas, which sometimes lack even a single primary care physician.
How sad that today's health care practitioners have been relegated to protecting themselves from lawsuits and writing script. What happened to treating patients? I want Dr. Welby back.
If we're going to go down the road of using artificially intelligent "medical doctors in a box", I sure hope this technology will understand me while I am coughing and saying "I can't breathe."