Does Primary Care Add Sufficient Value to Deserve Better Funding?

Most advanced nations, such as those belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, recognize and fully finance the central role of primary care in their health care delivery systems.¹ They spend about 20% of their total health care dollars on primary care, support a 1:1 ratio of specialists to primary care physicians, and rank among the highest in population health status while keeping per capita health care costs relatively modest.^1-3 This is not the case in the United States, where primary care accounts for only 7% of total health care spending and specialists outnumber primary care doctors by a ratio of 2 to 3:1,³ resulting in the world’s highest per capita health care costs and subpar population health status.² The underfunding of US primary care has been suggested as one of the principal causes of the poor performance by our health care delivery system.⁴ In a landmark international study, Starfield and colleagues⁵ found that where primary care is available, per capita costs are lower, health status is better, and health disparities are fewer.