Can New Players Revive U.S. Primary Care?

CVS-Aetna, Walgreens, Walmart, Amazon, Optum-United Health Group they’re all buying primary care practices or hiring primary care practitioners (PCPs) directly. Never before have the titans of capitalism shown such interest in the humble family physician. And therein lies a story with huge but uncertain implications for American health care. This new trend could greatly bolster, or dangerously distort, U.S. primary care, a critical component of a healthy health care system.

Underlying this trend is the fact that primary care in the United States is failing and has been for decades. Millions of Americans have trouble finding or getting access to primary care in a timely and convenient way. Primary care providers are increasingly scarce, even in medical meccas such as Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. In rural America, they are downright rare. Among high income countries, Americans are least likely to have a regular doctor or a long-standing relationship with a PCP.

But the usual stakeholders in the health care system insurers, the health professions, hospitals, state and federal governments have proved unable or unwilling to do anything about it. This is certainly one of the reasons that health care in the United States costs much more than it should.