Dear Colleague,
In less than three weeks, I will have
the distinct privilege of installing Dr. Lori Heim as
the 63rd president of the AAFP. As my time serving you
as president winds down, I want to take this opportunity
to talk with you one last time about the important
efforts your Academy is taking to help ensure reform of
our health care system.
What a year of change for our country!
What a year for health care reform! I think we can all
agree that we need to reform our ailing health care
system. What kind of health care reform we want becomes
the key question. As we have all witnessed, this debate
over needs versus wants has left the arena of thoughtful
discussion around policy and has entered the arena of
major league "Politics" with a capital "P."
There are several pieces of legislation
in play, and these bills are under rapid evolution.
Before the August recess, they were literally changing
by the hour. We don't have a finished product in either
chamber of Congress. That's why we see this evolving
process as being a critical time to be "at the table, so
we don't end up on the menu." We want to help shape the
debates around the critical principles and values that
we hold dear as family physicians.
So what principles am I talking about?
Where does the AAFP stand on health care reform? It's
really quite simple. We believe that the key to
designing a new health care system is to reemphasize the
centrality of primary care by:
In addressing all of these principles, our approach
has been one of "Yes, if." "Yes, we will support certain
provisions, if the following principles are present."
The health care system we have is unacceptable and not
financially sustainable long term. The rapidly growing
health insurance premiums and cost sharing measures
(like higher co-payments and bigger deductibles) are
making more of our patients limit their access to their
family doctors. The status quo is not acceptable to us
or to our patients.
I want you to know that we will stay at the table
and continue to help shape a better health care system
for our country. It's the right thing for us to fight
for on behalf of our members and our patients. We will
not get everything we want and there will undoubtedly be
elements of the final reform proposal that we won't
like. But I can guarantee the result will be much better
for our having been so fiercely involved.
In this vein, your AAFP leaders have been busy
recently, talking face-to-face and via conference call
with members of the Obama administration and Congress 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.
I met with Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White
House Office of Health Reform, and others in August.
During this meeting, I told them that the AAFP continues
it's commitment to the major principles of health care
reform, including providing health care for all and the
importance of better payments for family physicians and
other primary care physicians. I stressed that adequate
payment is key to building a primary care infrastructure
in this country and that we must invest in the education
and training of the primary care workforce so we have
enough family physicians in our country.
In addition to the White House face-to-face meeting,
I have participated in several conference calls with the
White House, along with representatives of several other
physician organizations, including the American College
of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association, the
American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical
Association. We discussed what we could do collectively
to move health care reform along. I am very optimistic
and encouraged by the discussions with the White House
and with our colleague organizations, and believe we
need these exchanges to get good, solid, factual
information to our members.
I also have been part of six town halls where I've
had a chance to represent the AAFP to both members of
Congress and to you. I have seen the fear, heard the
concerns, and witnessed much about the character of
America. It is important that America is having this
dialogue. The AAFP must stay engaged in the health care
reform process. Now is not the time to walk away from
the table, 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.
The AAFP is going to continue to be engaged and
advocating every second for the good of health care for
this country. I would ask of you to do the following:
- Stay optimistic. Keep focused on changing our
health care system for the greater good of our
country.
- Use the AAFP's web
page and the "Connect for Reform" icon in the
upper right hand corner to join and have a front row
seat as this debate and process unfolds.
- Download the AAFP-developed one page information
sheet for your patients that you can access here.
Please distribute this as you see fit. Included are
links to two historically bipartisan fact check
sites ( Fact
Check and Politi
Fact) where you and your patients can learn
about which statements about health care reform are
true and which are not.
- Please help settle down all the rhetoric, fear,
and confusion that exist with your patients,
colleagues, and communities.
I would like to just end with this. We have never
been closer to meaningful health care reform in the
history of our nation than we are right now. I remain
optimistic that we will step forward as a nation for the
good of health care for all. I wish you all the best as
we move forward.
Regards,
Ted Epperly, M.D.,
FAAFP
President
American Academy of Family
Physicians | 
