Why not eliminate this anachronistic charade of the general practitioner and use nurse practitioners and physician assistants to fill the gap? This is already happening in rural areas, which sometimes lack even a single primary care physician.

Private practices will not disappear, but increasingly they will become a niche to provide good old fashioned service to the generation in the habit of "going to see my doctor," while the more mobile young have already discovered the instant gratification of clinics and particularly the ERs.

When you visit your physician -- or general practitioner -- what usually happens? They usually give you a referral. Even if you don't have the type of insurance that requires referrals, if you have anything that requires a skill set beyond giving a flu shot, you will be referred elsewhere.

Policymakers should be aware that even well-informed patients with good access to primary care need the ER. Legislation should aim to increase availability of primary care, but not penalize for use of emergency services.

The insufferable pace of primary care combined with the erosion of the doctor-patient relationship deters young physicians from entering the field. In my graduating class of 30 or so internal medicine trainees, only two of us chose to go into primary care.

For those of you who get annual physicals, check out with your physician whether this is a necessary checkup. You may be pleasantly surprised that you can forego this routine ritual and see that your kids do it, instead.

In recent years, medical educators have warned that hospitals are growing more impersonal and have urged young doctors to treat patients as people -- not diseases.

The day a family member enters the hospital is the day to start planning for the trip back home. Nobody wants to go to the hospital, but as hospital stays get shorter, an increasing burden is falling on family caregivers.

Patients living in areas with more primary care physicians have lower death rates and fewer preventable hospitalizations, new research suggests. But a...