Should nurse practitioners be given more authority?

The nation is facing a shortage of primary care doctors, and to fill that gap many states are proposing to expand the role of nurse practitioners to allow them to prescribe medication, practice without a doctor’s supervision, and even be called doctors if they have a doctorate.

Dr. Mario Motta is president of the Massachusetts Medical Society and is also a practicing cardiologist. He believes that nurse practitioners don’t have the qualifications to be independent primary care practitioners. But some disagree. Linda Upmeyer, a nurse practitioner and the minority whip in the Iowa state House of Representatives believes in expanding roles for nurse practitioners. We’ll also hear from Micah Weinberg, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, on why there is such a shortage of primary care doctors in the first place.