• To achieve health care systems oriented toward primary care, efforts at reform must
address both the systemic and clinical characteristics of primary care.• The model of …

Health care reform in the United States and elsewhere raises many questions about equity
and effectiveness of health services. Although the impetus has been cost containment, the …

RECENT history reflects a myriad of problems with the US health service system. In the
1960s, physician manpower shortages received the most attention from policymakers. When …

Introduction: In the last decade, Canadian provincial and territorial health systems have
taken diverse approaches to strengthening primary care delivery. Although the Canadian …

Providing high-quality primary care is key to improving health care in the United States. The
Affordable Care Act sharpened the emerging focus on primary care as a critical lever to use …

Recent reforms in Australia, England, and the Netherlands have sought to enhance the
quality and accessibility of primary care. Quality improvement strategies include …

The gap between the supply of primary care physicians and the demand for primary care
continues to grow. Primary care practices must find a way to increase their patient capacity …

Primary care has proven to be extremely difficult to reform in Canada because of the original
social compact between the state and physicians that led to the introduction of universal …

Despite contentious debate over the new national health care reform law, there is an
emerging consensus that strengthening primary care will improve health outcomes and …

Although primary care is fundamental to health system performance, the United States has
undervalued and underinvested in primary care for decades. This brief describes how the …