State Primary Care Investment Hub

Primary Care: Essential to Health

There is nothing more important than our health. Decades of research have shown that increased investments in primary care lead to higher-quality and more equitable care as well as lower costs. Higher investment in primary care is associated with lower costs, higher patient satisfaction, fewer hospitalizations and emergency department visits, and lower mortality.

For patients, health care stakeholders, policymakers and large employers,shifting resources to person-centered, community-oriented primary care is a policy imperative

The Challenge

Despite high levels of overall healthcare spending in the United States, the proportion spent on primary care is relatively small and declining.The US, on average, spends only about five cents of every health care dollar on primary care - contributing to performance that lags other industrialized countries.. 

This underinvestment in primary care creates gaps in patient access and workforce, driving disparities between communities. Primary care underinvestment undermines our ability to confront our biggest health challenges, including chronic diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes, poor mental health and infectious disease epidemics.

A Proven, State-Led Solution

In more than one-third of states, stakeholders and policymakers have come together to reorient their health system toward primary care - through laws or regulations that track and improve investment in primary care over time. As illustrated below, four of the states that launched this growing trend are making a big difference.