Evidence abounds that access to primary care improves health and lowers costs. According to one estimate, the U.S. could save $67 billion a year if everyone saw a primary care provider as their main source of care. And yet, only 5% of health care spending in this country goes to primary care, less than in any other Western democracy.
This webinar will examine what actions states — which regulate the insurance industry and run the Medicaid programs — have taken to increase spending on primary care and what effect these efforts can have on costs.
AHCJ Board President Felice Freyer, an independent journalist, will lead the discussion with three national experts on the topic.
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This webinar series, supported by the Peterson-Milbank Program on Sustainable Health Care Costs, covers the affordability of health care by diving into health care cost drivers and looking at solutions. Journalists will learn about ways that states, employers and other stakeholders can promote affordable health care and will be able to tell these stories in the context of their state and local communities.
Moderator
Felice J. Freyer
Independent journalistPresident, AHCJ Board of Directors
Felice J. Freyer is a health care journalist based in Rhode Island. For 10 years until last spring, she was a health reporter at the Boston Globe, where the crisis in primary care was among the topics she covered. Before the Globe, Freyer was the medical writer at the Providence Journal. Now working independently, she has published articles in the Boston Globe Magazine and Harvard Public Health Magazine, as well as teaching journalism at Emerson College. She was elected to the AHCJ board in 2009 and currently serves as its president.
Christopher F. Koller
President, Milbank Memorial FundFormer Rhode Island Health Insurance Commissioner
Christopher F. Koller is President of the Milbank Memorial Fund and Publisher of the Milbank Quarterly. The Fund is a more than 100-year-old operating foundation that improves population health and health equity by connecting leaders with evidence and sound experience.
Before joining the Fund in 2013, he served the state of Rhode Island for eight years as the country’s first health insurance commissioner. Prior to that, he was CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island. He has served in numerous national and state health policy advisory capacities and was elected to the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine in 2023.  Koller is also a professor of practice in the School of Public Health at Brown University. He resides in East Providence, R.I. with his wife, Colette Cook.
Diane Rittenhouse, M.D., MPH
Senior fellow, MathematicaProfessor of family medicine and health policy, UCSF
Diane Rittenhouse, M.D., MPH, has two decades of experience researching health care organization, delivery, finance, and workforce — and translating that research into policy.  She received a Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and has been recognized in the United States and Europe as a leading primary care researcher. 
Currently, she is leading several projects focused on optimizing the primary care team workforce; strengthening the connection between primary care and health equity; diversifying California’s physician workforce; and understanding and supporting independently owned physician practices. She serves as an expert advisor for the development of the Health of U.S. Primary Care Scorecard recommended by the National Academies of Sciences, Education and Medicine.  Dr. Rittenhouse is a family physician who practiced for 10 years in a community-based faculty practice at the University of California, San Francisco.
Matthew Probst, PA-C
Physician assistant and primary care provider, Sunrise Medical Clinic
Matthew Probst is a Physician Assistant and Primary Care Provider at Sunrise Medical Clinic in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He is also Director of Rural Engagement for the University of New Mexico Office for Community Health. In 2019 he was the American Academy of Physician Assistants PA of the Year and recipient of the Primary Care Community Leadership Award and the National Association of Rural Mental Health Schumacher Award for Excellence in Clinical Service.
In 2020, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich named him a Hometown Hero, and New Mexico Magazine recognized him as a True Hero for COVID-19 response. In 2021, Mr. Probst was the New Mexico Alliance of School-Based Health Center Champion and the National Organization of State Rural Health Offices Community Star. In addition to the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services, Matt currently serves New Mexico on the Health Care Workforce Committee, the Primary Care Council, and the Aging and Long-Term Services Division Policy Advisory Committee.