Family Medicine Made History, Too, at 2008 Political Conventions

One of us is a Republican, the other a Democrat. But we both agree that history was made during this year's political conventions -- and not just by the Democratic and Republican parties. Family medicine broke new ground as well. For the first time, the specialty had access to the conventions and was able to co-sponsor and participate in convention-related events, all because of FamMedPAC, the political action committee AAFP wisely established in 2005.

We were privileged to lead the specialty's contingents to the political conventions, and it was an exciting, energizing experience for both of us. Now, we want to share just a few convention highlights with you to give you a sense of how important it was for our specialty to be there during this momentous year in American politics. No matter which side wins, the new president and Congress will make decisions that will impact our patients and ourselves for many years to come.

At the Democratic convention, we were the only physician group invited to participate in a closed-door roundtable discussion about health information technology. Seven members of Congress were there, including Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., who is drafting health IT legislation. In addition, leaders from health IT's heavy hitters, such as AT&T, Cerner, Dell, Express Scripts, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Qwest and Symantec, attended the roundtable, as did insurance industry leaders. Time and again, they all turned to the AAFP's representative, Ted Epperly, M.D., of Boise, Idaho, who was the lone physician in the room, to get the family medicine perspective.

What did they learn? It had never occurred to many of them that family doctors can't pass the cost of electronic health records on to patients in the current system of fixed payments. And most of our practices don't have the margin to eat the cost. They also hadn't understood that knowledge gleaned from working with hospitals and other large systems wouldn't necessarily apply to smaller physician practices -- that's akin to taking an 18-wheeler to the grocery store to pick up groceries. We hope everyone left the roundtable resolved to learn about the needs of small practices and understanding the importance of financial incentives to help family doctors afford health IT.

We networked like crazy at both conventions, building credibility, respect and relationships with other movers and shakers everywhere we went. We attended forums on health care reform, presentations by campaign health care advisors, briefings by congressional and senatorial campaign committees, receptions for legislators and many other events. We also co-hosted two receptions and a convention "viewing party" with other health care groups.

Several legislators and their staff members came to the events we co-hosted, and we took advantage of every opportunity to share family medicine's perspective with them. Among the members of Congress at our events were Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio; Democratic Reps. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Bart Gordon of Tennessee, Dale Kildee of Michigan and Frank Pallone of New Jersey; and Republican Reps. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota, Tom Price of Georgia, Phil Gingrey of Georgia and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

Many of them already grasped the medical home concept and the importance of family medicine; indeed, for many of them, family doctors are like baseball and apple pie. So our job was to reinforce the advantages the medical home and family medicine offer for their constituents as patients and for the nation as a whole. Those advantages need to be top of mind for these legislators as they grapple with the difficult political reality of redirecting funds to support primary care.

We reinforced all of our networking with advertising in the form of a full-page ad promoting the medical home and primary care that appeared in the newspapers distributed at both conventions. The ad's headline: "Finally, a health care model that benefits the patient. Or as you may know her, the voter."

The bottom line is that family medicine stood out at both conventions. Our primary care specialty cared enough to be there!

And now, the ball's in your court. In the coming weeks, the presidential candidates and their campaigns need to see family physicians at their rallies and hear from us at their town hall meetings. When a local paper reports on a health care issue, the campaigns need to see a letter to the editor or an opinion piece telling them exactly how the issue will impact family medicine and health care reform. Above all, each family physician needs to vote on Nov. 4 for the candidate he or she believes will move health care reform -- and family medicine -- forward.