Revitalizing the U.S. Primary Care Infrastructure | NEJM
(Something I read in 2021. The numbers speak for themselves.)
High-quality primary care is vital but undersupported in the United States. In communities with more primary care resources, people live longer, health care costs are lower, and there is greater health equity than in areas with less primary care infrastructure. More than half of office visits in the United States are to primary care clinicians, yet primary care physicians make up only 30% of the physician workforce and are supported by only 5.4% of national health expenditures, and research on primary care garners just 1% of federal agency research awards. One in five Americans live in a federally designated primary care Health Professional Shortage Area. Primary care physicians earn 30% less than other physicians, on average, and they have among the highest rates of physician burnout.
— Read on www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2109700