Representing the 13th Congressional District of Pennsylvania
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 8, 2009 |
CONTACT: Rachel Magnuson, 202-225-6111 |
| Schwartz: Patients Must Have Access to Primary Care | ||
“Madame Speaker, I rise today to address the importance of primary care in comprehensive health care reform. As we move toward creating a uniquely American solution in which all Americans have access to affordable, meaningful health coverage we must not forget that insurance alone means little if patients do not have adequate access to health care providers and services.
“Primary care providers are on the front line of our health care system – treating acute and chronic problems, preventing disease, and keeping costly conditions from worsening. And yet despite this essential role, it is primary care where we face the most acute provider shortages. Fewer and fewer medical students are choosing primary care. Since 1998, the percentage of internal medicine residents choosing primary care has dropped from 50 to 20. By 2025, America will have a shortage of 46,000 primary care providers.
“I have introduced the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act, HR 2350. My proposal takes a comprehensive approach to bolstering our primary care workforce and improving primary care services. It would provide scholarships and loan repayments to primary care providers; increase payments for primary care services; and eliminate copayments for Medicare beneficiaries seeking preventive care.
“I am encouraged to see a number of these provisions in the Tri-Committee Discussion Draft and I urge my colleagues to advocate for patients’ access to primary care in our continuing debate over health care reform.”
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