Issue Brief -- Ensuring Access to Care
Thursday, November 05, 2009
If tens of millions of Americans gain health coverage, will the current health system be able to meet the new demand?
This four-page issue brief looks at why the nation has a physician shortage, and what can be done to help ensure access to care after reform. Some solutions explored are:
1) incentives for newly trained physicians to join the primary care workforce,
2) reforming provider payments to encourage primary care, and
3) reorganizing health care delivery so that more patients have an ongoing relationship with a primary care provider.
The paper also explores some cautions of the Massachusetts health reform experience, as well as evidence of improved access in that state after the 2006 reforms.
Written by Deanna Okrent, Alliance senior health policy associate. Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To download, click here or go to www.allhealth.org/publications/Uninsured/Access_to_Care_92.pdf