Primary Care an Important Benefit of Health Insurance

One of the most important benefits of maintaining a health insurance policy is finding a primary care physician who will help with crucial goals like preventive medicine and avoiding unnecessary emergency rooms.

A new study appearing in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that between 1997 and 2005, the number of primary care visits rose from 273 million to 338 million per year.

The study found that the length of the average visit increased by 3.4 minutes in that period for general medical exams, while visits involving common conditions like diabetes and hypertension also increased by a similar margin. The average doctor visit now stands at about 20.8 minutes.

Overall, the frequency, quality and duration of visits to primary care physicians were all found to have increased since the late 1990s. This is helpful for patients because it makes them more likely to maintain their health as opposed to waiting to seek treatment during medical emergencies.

Patients with health insurance are also likely to place less strain on the overall system by making visits to crowded emergency rooms, which also happen to cost far more than visits to a primary care physician.