Receipt of primary care is associated with better health- people who receive primary care report longer, happier lives and higher satisfaction with their care. However, the number of Americans who receive primary care is decreasing.

In JAMA Internal Medicine, instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Medicine David M. Levine, MD, MPH, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine’s Jeffrey A. Linder, MD, MPH, and professor of health care policy Bruce E. Landon, MD, MBA, report that in 2002, 77% of Americans had an established source of primary care. By 2015, that number had decreased to 75%.

Use of primary care decreased for every decade of age except for Americans in their 80s. Younger Americans that were less medically complex, of minority background, or living in the South saw the biggest decrease in receipt of primary care.

Why are Americans neglecting primary care? The convenience revolution in care delivery may be siphoning off younger patients to other care settings such as urgent care clinics or telemedicine. Those who are uninsured face financial barriers, while shortages on the availability or access to care can cause barriers even to those who have insurance.

“We know that primary care is associated with better health, yet fewer Americans have primary care than ever before,” Landon told HMS News. “To improve Americans’ health, we should prioritize investments to reinvigorate the American primary care system.”

This study has been featured in News Medical, Fierce Healthcare, and Medical XPress.