Free primary care for all: Democratic think tank pushes the party on new health policy

FIRST ON NBC NEWSPolitics NewsPolitics NewsFree primary care for all: Democratic think tank pushes the party on new health policyThe Searchlight Institute wants Democrats to shake up their approach to healthcare and offer a fresh vision for the future.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00The proposed free primary care wouldn’t cover things like surgery, hospital stays, cancer treatment or most specialized care.Samuel Corum / Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 15, 2026, 5:00 AM EDTBy Sahil Kapur and Berkeley Lovelace Jr.As Democrats look for a viable healthcare message ahead of the midterm elections, one well-connected think tank is pushing the party to embrace a new idea: free primary care for all Americans.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Searchlight Institute senior fellow David Bowen, a former Senate aide who helped craft the Affordable Care Act, said it would be delivered either through that law’s marketplaces, expanding on the preventive services mandate, or through a new “public option” that the group is calling the “American Health Gateway.”“We know very, very well that getting people better primary care is a conduit to better overall health,” said Bowen, who led the policy report, which was first shared with NBC News. “It’s conduit to savings, and we want to make sure that people are not dissuaded by cost from doing that. We also provide a new way of expanding people’s coverage to recognize the reality of families today.”The proposal comes as millions of Americans have lost access to health insurance or seen their coverage downgraded after Republicans allowed enhanced ACA subsidies to expire at the end of last year.The ACA’s preventive services mandate requires most insurers to cover things like vaccinations and cancer screenings without charging a copay or deductible. Searchlight’s primary care proposal takes that much further: If a person shows up at the doctor a...