Primary care in the United States and its precarious future
Barbara Starfield MD MPH and Thomas Oliver PhD
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore,
USA
Abstract
Primary care has not secured a firm place within the US health services
system. Since primary care lacks a strong research base, is not
institutionalized in medical education or in policy-making and is
marginalized in both proposed and actual reforms, it has not developed
into a central component of the health care infrastructure. We discuss
recent efforts that promised modest improvements, including the Clinton
health care reform proposals and subsequent federal and state actions, in
the role of primary care within the health services system. We also assess
the likely fate of primary care given the accelerated growth of managed
care and market competition, the dissatisfaction of large segments of the
population with managed care and misperceptions of managed care as
synonymous with primary care. We highlight how managed care fails to
achieve the cardinal functions of primary care and summarize initiatives
that, at a minimum, would be required to secure a stronger position for
primary care in the future.
Keywords:
Clinton health plan, health care reforms, health policy, managed
care, primary care