BY J. MICHAEL BRODIE
WEB EXTRA! Legislators share views
with family physicians  FP Cathleen London, M.D., right, chats with Dora Hughes, legislative aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy, during the AAFP's Family Medicine Congressional Conference May 19 - 20 in Washington. |
Making health care issues visible on the political landscape in an election year -- that was the goal of about 80 family medicine leaders and AAFP members as they converged on the nation's capital for the newly named Family Medicine Congressional Conference May 19 - 20. It was the largest turnout of FPs on the Hill since the visits began as small legislative receptions in 1969.
Academy members came to urge congressional action on issues such as Title VII funding, Medicare graduate medical education funding and health care for the uninsured. You can help, too -- backgrounders on these issues are online for your use in contacts with your federal lawmakers (see end of story).
Unlike last year, when a possible Medicare reform bill loomed on the horizon, no blockbuster medical reforms were in the offing this spring. In an election year, when war and concerns over the growing federal deficit occupy policy-makers' attention, the Academy's conferees came to keep health care on the political radarscope.
Academy leaders saw this year's sessions with legislators as a positive next step toward having the Academy considered a permanent fixture in Washington policy-making. "It is important that we understand the process and develop relationships with key legislators," said AAFP Board Chair James Martin, M.D., of San Antonio, commenting on the annual conference co-sponsored by the Academy and the Organizations of Academic Family Medicine.
"This is a long-term proposition," agreed FP Cathleen London, M.D., of Brookline, Mass., after she met briefly with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; a staffer to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; and a senior health fellow from the office of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. "Family physicians need to be at the forefront of creating health care policy. To do that, we have to be present."
London pressed for beefed-up funding for Section 747 of Title VII of the Public Health Service Act, funding that supports family physicians' training programs. During her Hill sessions, she stressed the importance of keeping the FP pipeline open.
"I work in Brookline -- hardly a shortage of physicians; however, there is a shortage of primary care physicians there," London told Kennedy aide Dora Hughes. "We are already stressed to the limits trying to meet the needs of our patients. I could add two more docs in my practice if I had the room, and that would be a short-term solution. But what happens in five years?"
London also made a plea for action to ensure universal health coverage, adding, however, that access hinged ultimately on whether Congress can tackle tort reform. "Universal coverage won't matter if there are no doctors," she told Hughes. "Liability reform needs to happen. Right now we have an absolute crisis as premiums skyrocket out of control."
Osman Sanyer, M.D., of Salt Lake City also pleaded the case for continued Title VII funding. Sanyer, director of the family medicine residency program at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, told Amber Secrest, an aide to Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, that the loss of Title VII funding would have a dramatic effect three to five years down the road.
"One of the challenges I face as an academic family physician is that the funds to train (future family physicians) are relatively limited," he said.
Legislators and their aides welcomed the family physicians' presence in Washington. "You need to be here," Rep. James Cooper, D-Tenn., told Academy members at a luncheon meeting May 20. "You should be here because the pharmaceutical representatives are already here."
The Academy encourages you to take your own views to your lawmakers in visits and phone calls. For background on this year's leading legislative issues for family physicians, go to the AAFP's "Background on Federal Issues" page at http://www.aafp.org/x623.xml.
To reach writer J. Michael Brodie, e-mail mbrodie@aafp.org.
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