AAFP Leaders Engage White House Officials on Health Care Reform

AAFP leaders have been busy recently, talking face-to-face and via conference call with members of the Obama administration to stress the need to enact health care reform legislation that improves health care quality, enhances patient access and lowers costs via a primary care-based system.

AAFP President Ted Epperly, M.D., of Boise, Idaho, and John Tooker, M.D., EVP and CEO of the American College of Physicians, met with Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, and Kavita Patel, M.D., an internist in the White House's Office of Public Engagement, on Aug. 11.

According to Epperly, the primary care leaders expressed their organizations' commitment to the major principles of health care reform, including providing health care for all. "(Health care reform) must be based on a system of primary care and family physicians who provide timely, accessible, health care to the people of this country," he told AAFP News Now.

Epperly also noted that in the meeting, he stressed the importance of adequate payments for family physicians and other primary care physicians during the hour-long meeting. Adequate payment is key to building a primary care infrastructure in this country, Epperly told the White House staff members. "We must broaden the workforce so we have enough family physicians in our country."

Epperly noted that he also described the Academy's efforts to support health care reform and stressed the AAFP's Connect for Reform program, (Members Only) its grass roots advocacy and Speak Out initiatives, and its more recent Heal Health Care Now program.

DeParle and Patel also listened to advice from the Academy on how to "help dispel all of the myths that exist right now in the public around health care reform," said Epperly.

He stressed that AAFP members could dispel those myths by participating in the town hall health care meetings that are occurring around the country. AAFP members can help by delivering clear, articulate messages about health care reform to separate fact from fiction, said Epperly.

In addition to the White House face-to-face meeting, Epperly and AAFP EVP Doug Henley, M.D., participated in an Aug. 13 conference call with DeParle and Patel, along with representatives of several other physician organizations, including the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAFP and the other organizations talked about what they could do collectively to move health care reform along.

"I am very optimistic and encouraged by the discussions with the White House," Epperly said. "I believe we need these exchanges to get good, solid, factual information to our members."

Epperly said the AAFP must stay engaged in the health care reform process. "Now is not the time to walk away from the table," he said. "If anything, now is the time for us to be more engaged and to advocate for the way the health care system needs to be reformed.

"We are going to continue to be engaged, and at the table and advocating every second for the good of health care for this country," he vowed.