Important Issues

With the current Council of DC legislative period approaching its end, MSDC is pleased to announce its advocacy agenda for the next two years.

At its December 5 Board of Directors meeting, the Board unanimously approved its advocacy priorities for 2023-2024. The agenda is modeled after the one the Board approved two years ago and establishes the Society's advocacy priorities during the next Council period. The agenda was updated and reviewed by MSDC's Advocacy Committee prior to the Board meeting.

As seen below, the agenda focuses on four areas that help make the District "the best place to practice medicine":

• Ensuring Quality Care for All Patients
  
• Protecting Physicians and Their Practices
  
• Promoting Equitable and Inclusive Public Health
  
• Making Affordable Care Accessible
  

Most of the priorities remain similar from the 2021-2022 document, as this one seeks to build off of a series of major advocacy wins this Council period. A summary of this session's advocacy successes will be published in the near future.

Making the list this year are a few new or adjusted priorities. Nationwide challenges to the expertise of physicians led to clearer calls for advocacy in areas like children's healthcare, reproductive health, and health facility safety. The document also includes for the first time advocacy for "measures of sustainability" to reflect concerns about environment change and medicine. Telemedicine is also explicitly spelled out as the pending end of the federal public health emergency and insurer practice changes endanger the effectiveness of this important medical tool.

MSDC also looks to build on its unprecedented grassroots and testifying record this Council period. MSDC members and physicians who want to become more involved in local advocacy can contact Robert Hay at hay [at] msdc.org.