Pharmacists Have Solutions To Help Address Recommendations In The Leaders' Project Health Care Reform Report

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 19 Jun 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) applauds the recommendations regarding chronic disease in the report by the Bipartisan Policy Center's (BPC) Leaders' Project, entitled "Crossing Our Lines: Working Together to Reform the U.S. Health System." The report outlines key health care reform policy recommendations from a bipartisan perspective to ensure that all Americans have quality, affordable health care.

The BPC was founded in 2007 by four former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell who all share the common goal of finding a bipartisan solution to the nation's health care crisis. The report is the culmination of an inclusive year-and-a-half effort that included strategic outreach to key health care stakeholders, a series of state-based public policy forums, and months of personal deliberations.

The recommendations were designed to ensure that all Americans have quality, affordable health coverage, while improving health care quality and reining in skyrocketing costs. The policy recommendations outlined in the report are organized around four "pillars" of health reform:

- Promoting High-Quality, High-Value Care
- Making Health Insurance Available, Meaningful and Affordable
- Emphasizing and Supporting Personal Responsibility and Healthy Choices
- Developing a Workable and Sustainable Approach to Health Care Financing

In the third pillar, Emphasizing and Supporting Personal Responsibility and Healthy Choices, the Leaders endorse the efforts to increase the nation's focus on clinical and population-based prevention and wellness as a means to improve American's health. According to a report citation, "A large and growing proportion of our health spending is currently going toward chronic diseases, and the frequent occurrence of preventable and costly complications of these diseases creates an imperative to take major steps toward both clinical and population-based prevention."

"We are pleased the Leaders' Report acknowledges that chronic diseases are not optimally treated," said Thomas E. Menighan, APhA Executive Vice President and CEO-designate. "By working collaboratively with physicians and other health care providers, pharmacists help patients better understand their medications and how to get the full benefit of their medication therapy. Pharmacists are the key to solving our medication use crisis."

Source
American Pharmacists Association (APhA)