Does Higher Spending On Primary Care Lead To Lower Total Health Care Spending?

Health Affairs October 8, 2024
Gary Swan, Mary Jo Condon, Wayne Altman, Russell S. Phillips, Zirui Song, Corinne Lewis, Sarah Shaffer, Rik Ganguly

High-quality primary care is the foundation of a high-functioning health care system. It ensures patients have access to essential services, prevents emergency department visits and hospital admissions, leads to better health outcomes, and improves quality of care and equity. The secret sauce that allows high-quality primary care to deliver on all these benefits is long-term relationships between patients and their primary care clinicians and other team members. Trust allows patients and clinicians to use time as a diagnostic tool, rather than reactionary tests, procedures, or referrals; long-term relationships bring cohesiveness to a health care journey that is otherwise often fragmented in the US.

Despite these benefits, primary care is under significant stress. For decades, the United States has underinvested in...

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