American Academy of Family Physicians Joins Center for Practical Health Reform

LEAWOOD, Kan. — The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has joined the Center for Practical Health Reform (CPHR) as a National Associate, and AAFP President Mary E. Frank, M.D., will serve on the CPHR’s National Advisory Panel.

CPHR is the organizational home of a dramatically different national effort to address the health care system’s deepest problems by uniting consumers, business, labor and health care around a comprehensive plan. A non-partisan coalition platform for change, CPHR recognizes that stabilizing American health care will demand broad agreement on the seriousness of the situation, and must employ accepted solutions that facilitate, rather than restrain, market-based management and competition.

“The AAFP has a long history of supporting national health care reform and the provision of health care coverage for all,” said Mary E. Frank, M.D., AAFP President. “We have a great country, yet nearly 45 million people – one in six Americans – do not have access to health care. These are not welfare moms or homeless men – these are our neighbors and our friends, who are working day-in and day-out to care for their families. It is our hope that the efforts of the Center for Practical Health Reform can help galvanize key constituency groups around a common goal – to reform our national health care system.”

“Our health care system is large, and comprised of many very bright people, and we believe there is a critical mass of support for reform, but that the right players just need to be collected,” said Brian R. Klepper, CPHR President. “The AAFP is standing up and saying that we should work together for national health reform; my hope is that others in organized medicine will do the same thing and join our effort.”