Health Affairs September 3, 2025
Primary care providers in the United States are in short supply leading to reduced access to preventive and longitudinal care. A recent survey shows that wait times at primary care have increased nearly 50 percent over the past two decades, and on average it now takes 31 days to get an appointment due to the shortage; this lack of access is a major policy and public health issue.
The income gap between primary care and procedural or specialty-focused physicians is one of the major drivers of the lack of primary care access. In comparison with procedural or specialty services, primary care physician incomes are disproportionately lower. In 2023, the average salary of a specialist ($394,000) was substantially higher than the...
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