Pauline Chen must read my blog.
She talks about primary care in her latest NY Times column, and I’m happy that she uses that lofty perch to re-iterate (much more eloquently) many of the things that I’ve talked about previously.
I especially appreciate how she validates some of my arguments, by nothing the failure of Massachusetts’ health plan, giving fair warning to the Obama administration’s upcoming efforts: “Any attempt to make health care more accessible will be doomed to failure without an adequate number of primary care physicians and a strong primary care system. The situation in Massachusetts should be a wake-up call. Since a landmark law was enacted in 2006 requiring health insurance for nearly all residents, the state has struggled to provide primary care to the estimated 440,000 newly insured.”
She takes it one step further, suggesting that “the crisis in primary care must be addressed before any real change can occur; otherwise, the flood of new patients may instead turn out to be a final strike for our ailing health care system.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
