Primary Care Task Force Recommendations Are Necessary But Not Sufficient, Says MHQP’s Rabson in Globe Letter

(December 2025)

MHQP President and CEO, Barbra Rabson, ended 2025 with an urgent call to increase support for primary care in a Letter to the Editor published in the December 30th issue of the Boston Globe, calling the recommendations from the state’s Primary Care Access, Delivery, and Payment Task Force necessary but not sufficient. With the Globe’s permission, we are posting the contents of the letter below:

The foundation of our health care system, primary care, needs our support

A recent article by Jessica Bartlett reported on the state primary care task force recommendation to double spending on primary care (“New proposal tackles primary care access gap,” Business, Dec. 19). It has been five years since then-governor Charlie Baker and his health and human services secretary, Marylou Sudders, proposed legislation to double primary care spending in the Commonwealth. In that time, three Massachusetts Primary Care Dashboards have been released jointly by the Center for Health Information and Analysis and Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, documenting the steady decline in the health of primary care financing, capacity, care, access, and equity in Massachusetts. Tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents do not have access to a primary care clinician.

The organization I lead, whose mission is to improve patients’ care experiences, has been a strong advocate for primary care because it is critical to patient-centered care. I am grateful that the task force, of which I am a member, has come up with long-overdue recommendations to support primary care, given that it is the foundation of our health care system. These recommendations, however, though necessary, are not sufficient. Given how expensive health care has become, policy makers need to make many more rational decisions about health care spending that focus on keeping people healthy.

Barbra G. Rabson