I am back from my blogging hiatus, and I’m excited to write about the three papers the ACP released earlier this year about how they think healthcare should be fixed!
I gave an intro to this series here, which basically gives the caveats about whose opinions these papers–written by the second largest physician organization in the U.S.–do and do not represent. Now, let’s get into it.
This is the paper where the ACP lays out their recommended solutions to issues related to non-financial barriers to care and social determinants of health. And in case you didn’t already know, I say “non-financial barriers to care” because even people with good insurance coverage that has affordable out-of-pocket requirements can still have many barriers to care. That’s what we call “coverage without access.”
This paper first reviews some of the evidence on a number of public health issues (nutrition, tobacco use, substance use, maternal mortality, firearm injuries and deaths, environmental health and climate change), and then it reviews the main non-financial barriers to care (race and ethnicity, LGBTQIA identity, gender, physical and intellectual disability, location, age, language and citizenship status, incarceration status, religion and beliefs, health literacy, intersectional barriers).
Next, it gives policy position statements and each one is followed by some policy recommendations, so let’s look at each one in turn:
- This one says that all people should have equitable access to high-quality care and that none of those non-financial barriers to care should impact that. Then they recommend that policies be put in place to focus on minimizing those non-financial barriers to care. They don’t actually give a set of specific policy recommendations on which ones to prioritize or how to do it, but they do reference a few other ACP papers that give more specifics in certain areas. So, this first one is a nice safe policy statement without any real substance on how to make a difference.
- This one says that we need to do a better job ensuring there are enough physicians and hospitals overall and in underserved areas. And it actually gives a few specifics. Notably, the ACP thinks there should be more internists! They want residency spots increased, and they want more programs that support medical trainees to choose primary care and to serve in underserved areas. They also make a general statement about wanting there to be more effort put into ensuring rural and critical access hospitals are available. And they again reference a number of different existing ACP papers that go into detail in a number of those areas.
- This one says that they want more public health research and more policy interventions that address social determinants of health. Then, again they simply reference other ACP papers for specifics.
- This one says that we need to devote more resources to environmental health and climate change. And, again, without any specifics here, they reference other ACP papers.
- This one lists the most “critical” public health objectives that the ACP thinks we should focus our time and money on the most, which are tobacco use, substance use, maternal mortality, firearm-related injuries and deaths, and access to high-quality food. It references APC papers on the subjects that already have papers, and it recommends more research in the other areas.
Well, I admit I am underwhelmed at the substance here. And yet, even though I expected this paper to offer more specifics that I could evaluate, it does do a good job of organizing the issues and putting the other existing ACP papers into context. My only comment, then, will be that all of these policies fit into the “equitable access” category of my Healthcare Incentives Framework. (Sure, some will take issue with my “equitable access” terminology not being broad enough, and I will let them.) Policy responses to these issues should be pursued in each country to the extent that each society deems appropriate, and when the designers of the policies understand the rest of the Healthcare Incentives Framework, they will be empowered to implement those policies in ways that do not interfere with the long-term value improvement of their healthcare system.
We will see what the other two papers (Part 2 here, Part 3 here) have to offer in the coming weeks.
Clear Thinking on Healthcare 