MSDC Announces 24th Council Period Advocacy Agenda December 16, 2020

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 7, 2020 Board meeting, the Board unanimously approved the "DC COVID Heroes Advocacy Agenda for 2021-2022". 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":

• Providing quality care to all
• Protecting all physician practices
• Promoting public health
• Making prescriptions affordable

Most of the priorities remain similar from the 2019-2020 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. While reforming medical liability has always been an MSDC priority, this document spells it out even more explicitly. The agenda also includes language related to MSDC's Wellbeing and Physician Health Programs, advocating for protections for physicians experiencing burnout or addiction. Building off MSDC's strong and early work in medical equality, the agenda includes a priority to address structural racism in medicine. Finally, building off of MSDC's win for biosimilars, the agenda lays out more priorities for making medication accessible and affordable for patients.

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.