I think the comments below might be impacted on where and who you practice with. Talk with some family practice physicians in California with some very low contract rates and see what you get, private practices. Now talk with physicians who work for a large health care network, let's say like Kaiser for example, and yes you will probably get 2 different stories.
It's the small practices feeling the pinch and the larger institutions continue to grow, same thing with hospitals to a degree too. Small is threatened, big flourishes. On the topic of students not seeing a shortage, perhaps this might be a good time to think about incorporating more business classes into the process so medical students are prepared; however, if the projection is for the large institutions to continue to grow and employ physicians out of medical school that are 
predominantly going to work for an established salary, then that could in part explain why the perception of a shortage was viewed in such a manner by medical students as more of them may be looking towards a large institution for employment for their future.
It is a fact and nobody is disputing that specialists make more than family practice MDs and that is simply a fact, so whether it be private practice, working for large institutions, that issue will continue, just based on simple economics. So perhaps the shortage we are speaking of comes back around to the private family practice as we have all known and depended on for years and will the large institutions face this shortage as well? Ask some seniors about their access to physicians and you may get get another twist, see how far they travel, how difficult it is to get referrals to those accepting their plans, I don't think we have the full story here. BD
"It didn't happen," says Harvard University medical professor David Blumenthal, author of a New England Journal of Medicinearticle on the doctor supply. "Physicians aren't driving taxis. In fact, we're all gainfully employed, earning good incomes, and new physicians are getting two, three or four job offers." The nation now has about 800,000 active physicians, up from 500,000 20 years ago. They've been kept busy by a growing population and new procedures ranging from heart stents to liposuction."
"We have more and more physicians taking care of fewer and fewer patients," says Kevin Grumbach, chairman of family and community medicine at San Francisco General Hospital.
He says doctors gravitate to high-paying practices — such as sports medicine and total body scans — that serve the wealthy and well-insured at the expense of Medicare patients and others.
USATODAY.com - Medical miscalculation creates doctor shortage
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