Can healthcare be reformed by supporting primary care doctors?

In an arresting commentary on National Public Radio, former assistant Surgeon General (and family physician) Douglas Kamerow argues that U.S. healthcare is expensive and inefficient partly because there aren't enough primary care doctors to coordinate care. 

Doctors who know and can spend time with patients--family physicians, general practitioners, etc.--can provide better, less expensive care, he says. 

So what can be done by healthcare reformers? Kamerow suggests: 

• Primary care doctors should be paid more, slowing the shift into more lucrative specialties
• Important but marginalized quality-of-care services like counseling and e-mail with patients should be reimbursed generously (now it's hard for clinicians to get paid at all for such time spent)
• Medical students who go into primary care should get loan forgiveness

Kamerow makes a convincing case that, while the candidates talk about taxes, mandates, insurers, government programs and so on, they should pay attention to the benefits that primary care doctoring can bring to a fix.

Seems almost too simple for politics: with the right support, doctors and patients can conduct a lot of healthcare reform themselves.