2026, much faster than the average for all occupations..." this is due to several factors, including an expanding health care industry, an aging baby-boomer population, concerns for cost containment, and newly implemented restrictions to shorten physician resident work hours. in the 2008 aapa census, 56 percent of responding pas worked in physicians' offices or clinics and 24 percent were employed by hospitals. the remainder were employed in public health clinics, nursing homes, schools, prisons, home health care agencies, and the united states department of veterans affairs fifteen percent of responding pas work in counties classified as non-metropolitan by economic research service of the united states department of agriculture; approximately 17% of the us population resides in these counties. for pas in primary care practice, malpractice insurance policies with $100,000–300,000 in coverage can cost less than $600 per year; premiums are higher for pas in higher-risk specialties. compensation (us) according to bureau of labor statistics, in 2020 the median pay for physician assistants working full-time was $115,390 per year or $55.48 per hour, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $162,470. physician assistants in emergency medicine, dermatology, and surgical subspecialties may earn up to $200,000 per year. federal government, uniformed services, and us armed forces (us) pas are employed by the united states department of state as foreign service health practitioners. pas working in this capacity may be deployed anywhere in the world where there is a state department facility. they provide primary care to us government employees and their families in american embassies and consulates around the world. an important part of their jobs is to get to know what resources are available locally that they can count on in an emergency. they have other important roles, such as advising their ambassadors on the health situation in the country and provide health education to the diplomatic community. in order to be considered for the position, these pas must be licensed and have at least two years of recent experience in primary care. physician assistant in the us army military pas serve in the white house medical unit, where they provide care to the president and vice president and their families as well as white house staff. they are employed by several organizations with the intelligence community, specifically the central intelligence agency. while much of the job description is classified, they work under the directorate of support and are deployed to "austere environments" where they provide medical care, including trauma stabilization, and teach in the fields of survival, field medicine, and tactical combat casualty care. united states army pas serve as medical specialist corps officers, typically within army combat or combat support battalions located in the continental united states, alaska, hawaii, and overseas. these include infantry, armor, cavalry, airborne, artillery, and (if the pa qualifies) special forces units. they serve as the "front line" of army medicine and along with combat medics are responsible for the total health care of soldiers assigned to their unit, as well as of their family members. pas also serve in the air force and navy as clinical practitioners and aviation medicine specialists, as well as in the coast guard and public health service. the skills required for these pas are similar to that of their civilian colleagues, but additional training is provided in advanced casualty care, medical management of chemical injuries, aviation medicine, and military medicine. in addition, military pas are also required to meet the officer commissioning requirements, and maintain the professional and physical readiness standards of their respective services. the marine physician assistant is a us merchant marine staff officer. a certificate of registry is granted through the united states coast guard national maritime center located in martinsburg, west virginia. formal training programs for marine physician assistants began in september, 1966 at the public service health hospital located in staten island, n.y.