Stop Pretending Pharmacists Can’t Meet Primary Care Needs Steven N. Leonard January 12, 2026

https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/stop-pretending-pharmacists-can-t-meet-primary-care-needs?utm_campaign=forefront&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8UvttOYgXe37M1BOPTn2122OWB2vdtK5OgU5L5YZ8X-O1kSSDyWyUxmxicDBQyhHT7uQ5prjpCZ5dgk0hn0ZoggxK_mQ&_hsmi=401282012&utm_source=well+read Primary care is in crisis. Physicians are drowning in chronic disease management, working impossible hours for the lowest compensation among their peers. The New England Journal of Medicine recently explored this crisis in depth—the hierarchy within medicine, the impossible workload, the burnout. It paints a picture of a system we know is fundamentally flawed and unsustainable. But the essay has a glaring blind spot: It never questions organized medicine’s role in perpetuating the very crisis it laments.