You’ve read my thoughts on primary care before. Dr. Kevin Pho, of Kevin, M.D. blog fame, has an intriguing opinion piece in today’s USA Today. He says:

Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and cost. The United States takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the primary care physician.

He also offers a terrific starting point for health care reform in this country:

It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for spending time with patients, optimally managing their diseases and practicing evidence-based medicine. Make primary care more attractive to medical students by forgiving student loans for those who choose primary care as a career and reconciling the marked disparity between specialist and primary care physician salaries.

Have a read.

This entry is filed under 1,000,001 Solutions, Health Care Reform.