This brief examines how the Affordable Care Act, an aging population, and fewer primary care physicians will affect the need for primary care providers and what must be done to meet that increased need and stem a potential primary care shortage.

Author information: Mary Naylor, PhD, RN, FAAN, co-edirector, INQRI, Mark Pauly, PhD, co-director, INQRI, and Janet Weiner, MPH, associate director for Health Policy at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania,