Chapter 1: How does access to primary care impact healthcare costs?
Nipping medical problems and medical bills in the bud. From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshour, in for David Brancaccio. First, the Trump administration is planning on paring back some tariffs on steel and aluminum goods. This is according to multiple media reports, partly because officials are recognizing something the administration has repeatedly denied, that tariffs raise prices for consumers.
The tariffs were also very complicated for businesses to calculate. One way to avoid major medical bills is to catch major medical problems early or prevent them. That is why we have annual checkups and vaccines and antibiotics. But if you don't have good access to a doctor, all of that becomes harder. Researchers calculated just how big a difference that access makes.
Marketplace's Kaylee Wells has more.
If you're an adult with a chronic disease, having a go-to primary care doctor cuts your health care costs in half. The report from the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Primary Care says it also lowers your chance of getting hospitalized by 20 percent. And then for children with chronic disease, the benefits were even more striking.
Dr. Morgan McDonald is the National Director for Population Health at Milbank Memorial Fund, which co-funded the report. She said one in three adults in the U.S. can't get primary care. Lack of insurance can be a significant barrier. Cost can be a barrier. And the other barrier? Only 5% of U.S. health care spending goes toward primary care.
So... We have moved more and more physicians into specialty care. So we only see them when we have something specifically wrong.
Health care finance professor emeritus J.B. Silvers at Case Western Reserve University says med school pushes students toward picking specialties, rheumatology, dermatology, oncology, that kind of thing.
You make a lot more money as a specialist than you do as a primary care doctor.
That's why the report says the answer is increasing spending on the primary care workforce. More money means more primary care doctors, which means more health problems solved before they get really expensive. I'm Kaylee Wells for Marketplace.
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Chapter 2: What barriers prevent people from accessing primary care?
Like, I can be sarcastic, I crack a lot of jokes, but I'm also like, I'm a cancer. I'm emotional, I am super nostalgic. And then, yeah, pairing it with my need for things to be on a beautiful grid, kind of like my office, which is super organized. Don't you have like 20 cards to write by Friday?
Nope, all done. Really? Can you help me? Because I've run out of ways to say congrats. OK, I got good job, well done, and way to go. That's it. How about every day you make me proud, but today you get a card?
One of my first cards ever says, I love you enough to build Ikea furniture with you. And it is still a top seller because it really resonates with people. So I think it got started probably for that exact reason. Can I find something that speaks to my specific relationship? Or is it the kind of moment that's like, oh my gosh, this is so us. This card really gets me.
So I think it was just putting my own little stamp on the world with those moments and then combining it with My graphic design background was a little space that I felt like I could fill. I think holding my first cards was probably like, probably a little bit of imposter syndrome, a little bit of like, can I consider this real?
And now when I look around my office and I see how many cards I have, it kind of compares to that first time. And when you think of like all the times that someone has opened up one of my cards and read what was written on the inside, it's shocking to think of how many like little moments that my cards have been a part of.
We can sleep in the store
That was Michelle Byrne, founder of Paper and Stuff, based in New Jersey. Consumer spending, by the way, on Valentine's Day is expected to hit a record $29.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Our executive producer is Nancy Farghali. Our digital team includes Adam Twinnett, Brock, Emily McCune, and Dylan Miettinen. Our engineers are Tessa Block and David Schreck.
And in New York, I'm Sabri Beneshour with the Marketplace Morning Report.
From APM American Public Media. If there was a big red button that would just demolish the internet, I would smash that button with my forehead. From the BBC, this is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world.
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