Access to comprehensive, quality healthcare services is important for promoting and maintaining health, preventing and managing disease, reducing unnecessary disability and premature death, and achieving health equity for everyone in the community.

Access to healthcare can be limited in multiple ways such as lack of insurance, prohibitive costs, and the inability to access providers through available transportation. Finally, patients must be able to find acceptable providers that meet their needs and with whom patients are comfortable disclosing sensitive information and seeking care.

Access to healthcare impacts one's overall physical, social, and mental health status and quality of life. Potential health effects of low healthcare access include poor management of chronic disease, an increased burden due to preventable diseases and disability, and premature death. Policy changes to increase healthcare access, such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), helped previously uninsured individuals increase their use of preventive health visits with a usual source of care, while also improving overall health.

Having a usual source of care or a primary care provider (PCP) is especially important. PCPs can develop meaningful and sustained relationships with patients and provide preventative services while meeting patients' unique needs. Despite improvements, disparities in access to care persist, as seen by different levels of access based on characteristics like income, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, and ethnicity.

Language barriers, discomfort with available providers, educational limitations, and citizenship status all continue to contribute to disparities in care access. Geography can also drive disparities in access, with millions of Americans in rural areas lacking nearby access to primary care services.