AAFP Rep Urges Stable Medicaid Funding at Black Caucus Rally

The Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust wanted to call Congress' attention to health disparities and asked the Academy for help. So Darlene Lawrence, M.D., a practicing family physician in Washington and a former member of the AAFP Board of Directors, spoke at the caucus' rally and news conference April 7 on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

Lawrence pointed to data from "What If We Were Equal? A Comparison of the Black-White Mortality Gap in 1960 and 2000," published in the March-April issue of Health Affairs. "In 2002, blacks suffered 40 percent more deaths -- that's 83,000-plus more deaths -- than would be expected if they had experienced the mortality rate of whites," Lawrence said, referring to the study (and to earlier comments by Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., standing behind her in the video clip).

"The Academy is very concerned about several programs that might play a pivotal role in ending disparities -- they might be severely impacted as a result of proposed budget cuts," Lawrence said. "The first is Medicaid." The Senate has rejected a $14 billion proposed cut in Medicaid funding for fiscal year 2006, but the House has voted for $69 billion in cuts in Medicare and Medicaid combined for a five-year period, Lawrence said. "The Academy would like to see Medicaid funding remain stable in FY 2006. This is imperative."

Second, Lawrence mentioned President Bush's proposal to eliminate the main source of funding to train primary care physicians, Section 747 of Title VII of the Public Health Service Act. "The Academy is asking Congress to restore this funding to the 2003 level of $92 million," said Lawrence. "The primary care physician provides care management and care coordination, and this has proven to be cost-effective and one of the best routes to ending problems of access and racial disparities in health care."