February 2001 • Volume 7 Number 2
AAFP asks America: What do you think?
President Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., fields reporters' questions at the National Press Club while Board Chair Bruce Bagley, M.D., center, and Carlos Gonzales, M.D., listen.
T he Academy posted the above "want ad" to the nation Jan. 11 via a press event at the National Press Club in Washington. The event generated extensive exposure for the Academy's draft proposal for health care coverage for all.
AAFP President Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis., and Board Chair Bruce Bagley, M.D., of Albany, N.Y., headlined the event. They were joined by Carlos Gonzales, M.D., of Patagonia, Ariz., a member of the Commission on Public Health, who gave reporters firsthand examples of what lack of coverage means to his rural patients. AAFP Executive Vice President Douglas Henley, M.D., moderated the event.
Regarding the current health care system, "We can't keep doing what we've been doing because it's not working," said Roberts, producing a quote that was echoed throughout the media in January. USA Today put it in print, and CNN.com was one of many Web-based news outlets that carried it electronically.
What Roberts, Bagley and Gonzales were talking about was not new in one sense: The Academy has long sought to achieve health care coverage for all.
But what was new was the effort to summon involvement from all corners, far beyond the health care provider arena, in finalizing a plan to reform the dysfunctional system. The story and splashy quotes weren't all that gained mainstream press -- the http://www.aafp.org/unicov site did, too.
"There is a new opportunity today to take action," Roberts said Jan. 11. "But action is predicated on understanding. That's why we present this proposal, to help all Americans walk through the core elements of this very complicated issue and to help make some fundamental decisions."
The deadline for responding to the AAFP's draft proposal is Feb. 28. Go to http://www.aafp.org/unicov to read the plan; use the e-mail address provided to comment on it.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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