AMA's health advocacy agenda, our own Sacagawea

Driving with an in-car navigation system continues to be one of those "Wow! Gee whiz!" experiences for me.

One such system not only maps the route, it also speaks ordinary language -- understanding up to 680 verbal commands.

It has more than 7 million entries and instantly can display the route from where you are to where you're headed. It even plots a new route if you go astray or take a wrong turn.

It is a natural for women, who already understand the importance of direction. It is a face-saving aid for men who are, or at least are accused of being, congenitally gender-handicapped by a predisposition not to ask for directions.

Someone once pointed out that the Lewis and Clark expedition would have failed miserably but for the guidance of Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman who knew the territory well and pointed the expedition in the right direction. Those bold enough to ask for directions demonstrate the Sacagawea effect in their lives.

The AMA employs the Sacagawea effect, having developed its own navigation package, our health advocacy agenda.

In just a few phrases, we have mapped out where we want to go and how to get there, targeting all our efforts along a disciplined path.

The ultimate destination is reform of the U.S. health care system with a goal of providing access to quality, affordable health care for everyone.

Steps along that route in 2007 include efforts to expand medical coverage for the uninsured, to reform the Medicare physician payment system, to reform the medical liability system, to improve the health of the public and patients by working to develop quality standards for the profession, to improve patient safety and to promote healthy lifestyles.

This important effort focuses on those matters of greatest concern to physicians and patients alike. The alternative to such focus is to be "a mile wide and an inch deep," as they say. The alternative is to be ineffective.

A few weeks ago, our message on the uninsured echoed through the halls of Congress as we joined your voice with the voices of a broad range of other groups allied in an unprecedented coalition, the Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured. The HCCU has 16 national organizations that commonly disagree on federal health policy. But they found common ground on principles to expand coverage for the 47 million Americans without health insurance (link).

The immediate goal is to provide coverage in 2007 for every child in the nation. As with the AMA plan, the HCCU road map calls for a balance of private and public initiatives.

And, as with the AMA plan, the focus is on patients first. Not politics. Not economics. Not anything but what is best for Americans.

This major step forward in putting a guidance system in the health care vehicle will provide direction and ultimately nationwide awareness -- setting a vision that all can support.

We believe the other elements in our advocacy agenda provide similar direction and vision.

And we need your help in getting the job done -- both by your membership in the AMA and by your active participation in our Grassroots Network. If you haven't signed up, do so now online (link).