February 2001 • Volume 7 Number 2
What's AAFP's legislative agenda for coming years?
Think short-term and long-term. That's how Academy leaders are setting the Academy's legislative agenda.
"In the short term -- looking pragmatically at what we may be likely to achieve in 2001-2002 -- we'll work for Medicare prescription drug benefits, protections for patients through a patient's bill of rights, and adequate funding for family practice education and primary care research," says AAFP President Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis.
"We'll support a little tinkering here, a little incremental change there, because that's what seems possible now," says Roberts.
"But our long-range, comprehensive vision is far broader," he adds. "Many patients and doctors have a sense the health care system is struggling -- it's too complicated, confusing and expensive, and sometimes it's dangerous. Its financing and structure have to change."
The Academy is floating a proposal for health care coverage for all (see story, page 1); the draft recommendations would overhaul the system's financing. As for its structure, says Roberts, "We'll work toward making sure every American is able to choose a family doctor."
That means informing the public and policy-makers about the system's problems and how a family practice model of care could solve them. The beginnings of that effort lie in AAFP's new public awareness campaign (see story, page 1), says Roberts.
Research will also strengthen the specialty's role in changing the structure of the health care system. "The model we have in mind for a better health care system can be tested and proven through research. AAFP's $7.7 million research initiative launched in 1997 -- one of the smartest investments the Academy has made -- will help FPs gain research skills, prepare them to conduct research and have it published," says Roberts.
The Robert Graham Center, AAFP's policy center in Washington, will translate research about the family practice model of care into ideas and statements policy-makers can understand and use, says Roberts.
He sums up: "We'll plant the seeds and invest the resources to help change public attitudes and policy about the basics of the health system and how it's funded and structured."
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
FP Report | Headlines |AAFP Home | Search