Lawmakers Wonder How To Attract Doctors To Rural Areas

Can you legislate quality of life?

That’s the question facing lawmakers in Lansing as they try and figure out how to get more doctors to set up shop in rural areas.

House Speaker Kevin Cotter says you can’t really draw up a law to encourage people to live somewhere but the state can do something, by partnering with communities who want to attract more doctors.

A June report from the Citizens Research Council of Michigan found some people in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula have to drive multiple counties away to find an OBGYN or a general surgeon.