How far back should medical records go?

[jay]

I plan on switching physician's and I asked my current physician's office to
release my medical records. I chose to pick up the records myself. They
gave me copies of my records for a fee of $1 per page. Given that I'm 40
years old, I was surprised to see they only had medical records going back
as far as 1998. This was 21 pages total, which included lab reports from a
few recent physicals.

In the past, whenever I changed doctors, I would always simply have my
records transferred directly to the new doctor. Maybe I'm living in a
dream world <grin>, but I was expecting that my current physician would have
therefore accumulated "my whole life's worth" of medical records or at least
have a sheet with a list of all the vaccinations I've had from childhood
onward, and perhaps list of any significant medical issue I had ever
encountered.

I'm in overall good heath, and do not currently take any prescription
medications. Can I assume that medical records that go back to 1998 are
sufficient for the purpose of changing doctors, or will my new physician be
insisting that I go back and ask my current physician to try to dig up even
earlier records?

Thanks,

Jay