AMA's advocacy agenda: Helping doctors help patients

Covering the uninsured and Medicare reform are among the major priorities for 2007.

Editorial. Jan. 29, 2007.

This year, as it does every year, the American Medical Association will speak loudly on behalf of America's physicians, and their patients, on issues from Medicare payment reform to improving patient safety.

In the physician surveys and roundtables that helped form the AMA's recently released 2007 advocacy agenda, one message was abundantly clear: The AMA, as the nation's advocate for physicians and their patients, must be the voice to put pressure on lawmakers and presidential candidates to explain how they plan to get health coverage to the burgeoning number of uninsured. That's 46.6 million Americans, or 15.9% of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The advocacy agenda is an important tool to get the message across to those in power that patients desperately need help and that the health care system must change. The advocacy agenda also tells patients that their physicians are there to help them. And when lawmakers take on the issue, the AMA is ready, and has been for years, with a long-term plan for covering the uninsured through the use of market reforms and individual tax credits allowing patients to select and own health insurance.

Despite the enormity of this problem, there are other issues that demand attention and solutions. The AMA advocacy agenda is all about listening to physicians' voices on the issues, then speaking as one voice to affect legislative and social change. This year's advocacy agenda lays out its priorities in three major ways: To reform America's health system, to improve the health of the public and patients, and to help physicians succeed in their profession.