Policy & Advocacy

Primary care saves lives, leads to better individual and community health, and is central to health equity. PCDC works with primary care providers, policymakers, industry leaders, and other advocates to advance policies that increase access to quality* primary care, ultimately enabling improved health outcomes, reduced costs, and increased health equity.

Through decades of experience investing in and strengthening primary care in underserved communities, PCDC intimately understands the rapidly changing health care policy landscape and is uniquely positioned to offer actionable policy recommendations.

Our Policy Priorities

PCDC supports policies at the federal, state, and local level that promote health equity by expanding and ensuring access to quality* primary care for disinvested communities and communities with the greatest need.

In 2023, PCDC is working to advance policies that:

• Create a primary-care centric health system that supports whole person, integrated, high-quality primary care for all people. Specifically, in 2023, PCDC will seek out and support policies that:
  • Increase investment in and improve payment models and reimbursement for all primary care services, including advocating to increase the proportion of the health care dollar spent on primary care, and supporting the role of primary care in addressing public health crisis, including COVID and future pandemics.
  • Center primary care in regulatory and statutory improvements to the health care system.
• Directly support capital investment in and sustainability for primary care providers in disinvested communities, so that they can provide the care needed in safe, welcoming, supportive, appropriately resourced facilities.
  • Provide additional and more flexible funding for the Revolving Loan Fund in New York.
  • Protect, expand, and stabilize the federal New Markets Tax Credit Program.
  • Stabilize the 340B Program and ensure long-term stability and sustainability for Safety Net providers.

PCDC strongly supports policies that:

• Expand access to health insurance.
• Enable more intentional and comprehensive integration of sexual and reproductive health care into primary care, including care related to maternal health, contraception, and abortion.
• Move towards ending the HIV epidemic.
• Support a sustainable, culturally competent workforce that cares for disinvested, low-income and rural communities.
• On the local level, make access to primary care the focus on new health initiatives.
• Treat gun safety as a public health issue, including measures that help primary care providers integrate counseling about gun safety and dealing with trauma into their regular practice.

Click here to see a summary of PCDC’s 2023 Policy Priorities.

Our Work

• Develop and advance meaningful policy proposals that improve primary care financing, reimbursement, service delivery, and workforce training and pipeline development
• Partner with primary care and community development organizations to advance common goals
• Educate key federal, state, and local policymakers on the importance and impact of a robust primary care delivery system