The Affordable Care Act is about to cause the biggest surge in health coverage the country has seen in decades. The U.S. doesn’t have a fraction of the primary-care physicians needed to meet the new demand. But as this article shows, training more doctors is not the only remedy—or the best one. Decades of research show that nurse practitioners and other “advance-practice” RNs can handle 70% to 90% of our medical needs, often achieving better outcomes than doctors at significantly lower cost. The article chronicles the rise of nurse-managed health centers in Philadelphia, and shows how this model of primary care could strengthen the nation’s health care system.
