The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's newly insured patients will not crash the health care system, a new report said, contradicting assertions by some medical groups that the law would aggravate a shortage of doctors and otherwise strain health services.

According to a Commonwealth Fund analysis released Wednesday, the number of annual primary care visits due to the health care law will rise just slightly, by 3.8 percent nationally. That translates into about 70 additional visits per year per primary care physician, or 1.3 visits per week.

Researchers said that the nation's health system can accommodate the added demand, and that the increase of primary care visits will have only a modest impact on consumers' access to care.