The Case for Investing in Primary Care

Although primary care is the lifeline of a health care system, the United States spends less on it, and more on specialty care, than other high-income countries. This sends a message to our primary care workforce: we don’t value what you do. The result? Burnout, high turnover, physician shortages—all of which were dire crises <em>before</em> the pandemic but are even worse now. <p>On the latest episode of <em>The Dose</em>, host Shanoor Seervai asks Asaf Bitton, M.D., executive director of the health innovation center Ariadne Labs, what it will take to rebuild the nation’s broken primary care system.</p> <p>“What we've learned over these last 15 or 20 years is that primary care is a team sport,” says Bitton. A modern practice cares for a well-defined population using “technology in a different way… to start building a much more integrated primary care of the future.”</p>