Primary care is essential to keeping us healthy by preventing disease, managing chronic illness, and navigating social stressors that impact our health, such as violence or food insecurity. American adults with a primary care provider have 33% lower health care costs each year and are 19% less likely to die prematurely compared to those who only see a specialist. And yet, while more than 90% of Californians have health insurance, millions still lack access to affordable, high-quality primary care.¹

The mismatch between coverage and care is fueled by shortages of health care providers. Today, 11.4 million Californians, over one-quarter of the state’s population, live in a primary care Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA).² And nearly two-thirds of those living in a primary care HPSA are Latino/x, Black, or Native American, raising concerns about health equity.³ A generation of primary care providers will soon retire, many are leaving the field because of burnout, and fewer doctors are entering the field because of lower pay and prestige. This phenomenon reveals the dysfunctions of our health care system. Without action from policymakers and the health care industry, California will be short 4,000 primary care providers within the decade.⁴

We’ve synthesized why primary care matters in two documents, available for download below. The first, Why Primary Care Matters for California, provides a broad look at the value of primary care provider and team relationships, where and why our health care system underinvests in primary care, and why CHCF convened the Primary Care Investment Coordinating Group to push the issue forward.

The second, The Case for Investing in Primary Care in California, takes a deeper dive by reviewing the definition of primary care, including its central attributes and provider types; briefly summarizing evidence on the value of primary care and the status of primary care payment; and exploring the intersection of primary care with three high-priority areas of policy and program development in California — health workforce, coverage expansion, and CalAIM.

1. Miranda Deitz et al., Undocumented Californians Projected to Remain the Largest Group of Uninsured in the State in 2022, UC Berkeley Labor Center, April 13, 2021.
2. Custom data request, Dept. of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI), April 2022 .
3. Custom data request, HCAI, April 2022.
4. Joanne Spetz, Janet Coffman, and Igor Geyn, California’s Primary Care Workforce: Forecasted Supply, Demand, and Pipeline of Trainees, 2016-2030, Healthforce Center at UCSF, August 15, 2017