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The Obama Administration is seeking input from the National Medical
Association, the largest organization of black medical practitioners in
the world, for the nation’s unprecedented healthcare overhaul. Dr.
Garth Graham, deputy assistant secretary for Minority Health in the
Department of Health and Human Services, also said upwards of $20
billion is going to be appropriated for what he terms “priority
communities” — minorities, children and the disabled — to address their
medical needs in more comprehensive ways.
Graham said
African American medical practitioners are inordinately visible on the
front lines of the battle against ailments and disease in urban areas.
Therefore, Obama believes that black doctors’ input is not only
coveted, it is mandatory if real transformation is to be undertaken.
“The NMA represents a significant portion of our practice community and
folks who understand much of the challenge as it pertains to serving
underserved communities,” Graham said at the National Medical
Association’s 2009 convention and Scientific Assembly. “So making sure
we actually have this particular dialogue and understand the concerns
of the NMFA [are] important to the White House and is important to
[Health and Human Services].
Obama’s health care overhaul plan has five main objectives: control
cost, provide quality health care, eliminate health disparities, change
what doesn’t work and enhance what does, and put all decisions about
medical procedures back in the hands of the physicians and insurance
holders.
Graham said two pieces of legislation Obama recently passed should
provide some optimism that reform can and will be accomplished during
the president’s first term. Obama, a former smoker, instituted much
more stringent regulations on the powerful tobacco industry. Also, the
Recovery and Reinvestment Act will infuse healthcare with technological
advances in healthcare, such as digitalizing medical records to
sufficiently serve urbanites. The RRA will also “establish an institute
to evaluate effectiveness of different drugs and medical devices that
exist for the same treatment,” Graham added.
Realizing that all American ethnicities are inextricably intertwined
health wise, Graham noted that real reform will fail if the pockets of
American society continue to ail from medical neglect and inadequate
care. –terry shropshire
