Facts About Primary Care
Primary care is an integral part of health care reform because it improves health outcomes and lowers health care costs. Primary care is particularly important for underserved communities where chronic illness is most prevalent, health services and health status is most disparate, and resources are most constrained.
Primary care lowers healthcare costs
Investment in primary care ensures lower costs while actually improving the quality of care. Healthcare costs have risen at more than double the annual rate of inflation for more than a decade-- 75 percent of which is attributed to spending on chronic illness. True healthcare reform in a declining state and national economy is only attainable if we succeed in managing costs, which means investing in healthcare that works.
- Within the United States, adults who can identify a personal primary care physician incurred 33 percent lower costs of care and have lower Medicare spending, including hospital and physician expenses.
- Medicare costs are inversely related to the supply of primary healthcare physicians; the greater the supply of primary care, the lower the Medicare spending rate.
- The United States could save nearly $2.5 billion a year by more effectively using primary care to prevent hospitalizations due to severe diabetes complications.
- Patients with congestive heart failure, abiding by Primary Care Medical Home standards have 35 percent fewer hospital days
Download our Primary Care and Healthcare Costs Fact Sheet.
Primary care reduces racial and ethnic disparities
Minority and low-income communities suffer from a lack of high-quality primary care facilities. Minority patients have fewer primary care options than white patients, and the care they do receive is poorer in quality than the care white patients receive. When poverty is present, those disparities in quality and access only grow.
However, these disparities can be significantly reduced and eliminated through the investment and expansion of primary care in low-income and minority communities.
- Higher quality primary care levels are associated with reduced racial and ethnic disparities in health status, as measured by self-rated general and mental health. This relationship is particularly pronounced for the racial and ethnic minorities living at or below poverty level.
- Communities with high income inequality but a high ratio of primary care physicians showed a 17 percent lower post-neonatal mortality rate, while those with low levels of primary care showed a 7 percent higher rate of post-neonatal mortality.
- Community health centers were found to reduce disparities in low birth weight infants born to black women versus white women.
- Minority patients with hypertension who are health center patients are three times as likely to report that their blood pressure is under control as a comparison group.
- Health center patients are twice as likely to have their blood sugar tested on schedule.
Download our Primary Care and Racial and Ethnic Disparities Fact Sheet.
Primary care improves health outcomes
Primary care is one of the best ways to improve long-term health. Increased access to preventative services has been shown to reduce the incidence of chronic and costly diseases by engaging patients in preventative care programs and managing conditions before they become serious. The result is that areas with a higher number of primary care providers see lower mortality rates.
- There is a direct relationship between primary care physicians supply and health outcomes; specifically there is a decline in mortality from cancer, stroke, and heart disease, and in infant mortality rates.
- Rural counties with higher numbers of primary care physicians exhibit increased levels of health, including two percent lower mortality rates from all causes, four percent lower mortality rates associated with heart disease, and three percent lower mortality rates associated with cancer.
- A study of 18 industrialized nations found that the greater a nation's "primary care orientation," the lower its mortality rates from all causes, and specifically, for asthma and bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia, cardiovascular disease, and heart disease.
- Uninsured people living close to a community health center are less likely to postpone or delay seeking needed care, and less likely to have visited an emergency room, compared to other uninsured persons.
Download our Primary Care and Health Outcomes Fact Sheet.
