Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and cost. The U.S. takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the primary care physician.

A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare beneficiaries（老年医保受惠人）. The startling finding was that the average Medicare patient saw a total of seven doctors—two primary care physicians and five specialists—in a given year. Contrary to popular belief, the more physicians taking care of you don’t guarantee better care. Actually, increasing fragmentation of care results in a corresponding rise in cost and medical errors.

How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid whenever they perform a medical service. The more a physician does, regardless of quality or outcome, the better he’s reimbursed (返还费用). Moreover, the amount a physician receives leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30-minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient’s disease. Combine this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately cut reimbursements, physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income.

Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to cash-only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care.

Medical students are not blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care. The recent numbers show that since 1997, newly graduated U.S. medical students who choose primary care as a career have declined by 50%. This trend results in emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients without regular doctors.

How do we fix this problem?

It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for optimally (最佳地) managing their diseases and practicing evidence-based medicine. Make primary care more attractive to medical students by forgiving student loans for those who choose primary care as a career and reconciling the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries.

We’re at a point where primary care is needed more than ever. Within a few years, the first wave of the 76 million Baby Boomers will become eligible for Medicare. Patients older than 85, who need chronic care most, will rise by 50% this decade.

Who will be there to treat them?

57. The author’s chief concern about the current U.S. health care system is __________.

A) the inadequate training of physicians

B) the declining number of doctors

C) the shrinking primary care resources

D) the ever-rising health care costs

58. We learn from the passage that people tend to believe that __________.

A) the more costly the medicine, the more effective the cure

B) seeing more doctors may result in more diagnostic errors

C) visiting doctors on a regular basis ensures good health

D) the more doctors taking care of a patient, the better

59. Faced with the government threats to cut reimbursements indiscriminately, primary care physicians have to __________ .

A) increase their income by working overtime

B) improve their expertise and service

C) make various deals with specialists

D) see more patients at the expense of quality

60. Why do many new medical graduates refuse to choose primary care as their career?

A) They find the need for primary care declining.

B) The current system works against primary care.

C) Primary care physicians command less respect.

D) They think working in emergency rooms tedious.

61. What suggestion does the author give in order to provide better health care?

A) Bridge the salary gap between specialists and primary care physicians.

B) Extend primary care to patients with chronic diseases.

C) Recruit more medical students by offering them loans.

D) Reduce the tuition of students who choose primary care as their major.

Part V Cloze (5 minutes)