The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is calling on the 115th Congress to fund and support health, workforce and research programs, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
In a press release, John Meigs, Jr., M.D., president of AAFP, called for stable funding for health programs, noting that while Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through April l28, 2017, “funding for a partial fiscal year ensures short-term relief from uncertainty, but programs that provide health care and fund research require stability over the long term.”
“The AAFP supports health policy that protects and promotes the well-being of all Americans. We welcome the continuing resolution’s $170 million fund to address lead and other contaminants in the Flint, Michigan, water system,” Meigs wrote. “As family physicians, we strongly advocate for programs that ensure Americans have access to high-quality, cost-effective primary medical care. We call on the 115th Congress to preserve the integrity and fiscal stability of programs that provide preventive care to all Americans, particularly those who live in rural and urban underserved communities. Equally important, lawmakers must preserve federal programs that support mammography, cancer screening for men and women, as well as screening for diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and other chronic diseases.”
Noting that access to such services depends on a primary care physician workforce and evidence-based guidelines for providing health care, Meigs called on Congress to recognize and support AHRQ’s research.
“AHRQ supports important research in areas which are not the focus of investigation anywhere else in the biomedical research community. It is the sole federal agency charged with producing research to support clinical decision making, reduce costs, advance patient safety, decrease medical errors and improve health care quality and access,” Meigs wrote.
