In Globe Letter, Barbra Rabson Urges Strong Focus on Rebuilding Primary Care

(July 2025)

MHQP continues to focus attention on the urgent need to address our failing primary care system — this time with a Letter to the Editor by President and CEO Barbra Rabson published in the July 24th issue of The Boston Globe. With the Globe’s permission, we are posting the contents of the letter below:

Boost in primary care would ease health care funding crisis

Your July 17 editorial, “One big disaster for Massachusetts health care,” notes that while Massachusetts cannot replace lost federal dollars, it can limit the damage to residents. We have an opportunity to address this crisis in a significant way. Our health care system is currently out of balance. In Massachusetts, according to the Milbank Memorial Fund, less than 6 cents of every dollar we spend on health care goes to primary care, despite the fact that the preventive care that primary care doctors and nurses provide saves lives and dollars.

When people are unable to see a primary care clinician, they get sicker and are forced to turn to hospitals or emergency departments, where it’s more expensive and more traumatic. The average cost of an ER visit is $1,200 in Massachusetts, at least four times what it costs for a primary care visit.

If our goal as a Commonwealth is to extend life expectancy at a reasonable cost, we need a strong focus on rebuilding primary care to help manage this oncoming health care disaster. Massachusetts has a primary care task force charged with stabilizing and strengthening the primary care system across the state. This group’s recommendations are more important now than ever.

Barbra G. Rabson