Title: Chair's Report

Author:

Section/SPIG: Medical Care

Issue Date:

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Dear Medical Care Section members:

This is going to be a short and sweet introduction to our fall newsletter. I just want to thank many of you who are involved in the Section and I want focus on asking all of you to get more involved. Those who are not regulars should come to APHA in San Francisco this year and join us at our Business Meetings-Saturday and Sunday evening and Monday-Wednesday at 7 a.m. The program states that we start at 7:30 a.m. or 8 a.m., but we are up and running at 7 a.m. because we traditionally have much to share and to do.

There is no end to the number of areas in which our Section shines and takes leadership: global health care issues, global peace and prevention of nuclear proliferation and war, Medicare and pharmaceuticals, managed care, universal health care reform, and ethnic and racial disparities to name but a few. And, to reiterate messages of the past, our committees remain dynamic and diverse. They are both discipline and issue based in areas such quality of care, drug policy and pharmacy, jail and prison health, women's health, veterans’ health, rural and urban health, health economics, social sciences, health services research and history of public health. The Medical Care Section also sponsors the world-class journal Medical Care. Several of our members sit on the Medical Care Editorial Board.

We are excited to have Oli Fein running for the APHA Executive Board. We are excited to have Camara Jones serving currently on the Executive Board. Likewise, we are fortunate to have Ellen Shaffer on JPC, Julie Zito on the Intersectional Council Steering Committee, Alison Hughes on the Action Board and yours truly on TFAIR (task force devoted to reviewing the organization and governance of APHA). Medical Care is a training ground and launching pad for APHA office, which provides even greater opportunity to contribute to APHA's external policy agenda, visibility and internal function.

This is an important transition time in the country. Medicare, as either a viable shell for the future expansion of health insurance or as a principled statement of social insurance policy in the United States, is under severe attack. The Congressional initiative to add drug benefits is an attempt to privatize the entire program and dramatically change it. APHA needs your voices to speak out about this and many other public health and public policy issues.

APHA is also under transition with a new executive director and the revision of its strategic plan. We look forward to having new leadership and new ideas at a time when APHA is earnestly looking at its structure, function and how best to support members, and at whether APHA can more effectively communicate its progressive public health and health policy vision in local and national forums. We will continue to be vigilant. It is clear that the Medical Care Section provides the sense of community, energy and purpose which makes vigilance possible.