In D.C., AAFP Leaders Call on Congress to Support Family Medicine

In all these sessions, your Academy asked lawmakers to

• safeguard the Medicaid program against proposed budget cuts that would harm many of the nation’s most underserved patients;
• permanently authorize and fund the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program, which is vital to building the primary care workforce; and
• reform Medicare physician payment, starting with action to correct 2025’s 2.8% cut to physician payment.

It is the AAFP's firm stance that the weakening of Medicaid now under discussion would yield swift consequences to low-income individuals, children, pregnant patients, elderly adults and people with disabilities. The negative impacts would then ripple through the health system at large, leading to reduced access to primary care, higher use of emergency departments, worsening health disparities, increased uncompensated care for clinicians and significant local economic impacts.

In strong Senate testimony Feb. 12, Nosal sounded a similar caution and talked about the ways in which her patients depend on Medicaid.

“Medicaid serves a critical need, providing coverage for patients and sustaining community health centers delivering care to these struggling communities,” she said.

AAFP Chapters have been similarly active in this push, writing as a bloc to the House and the Senate to express “deep concerns regarding proposals to reduce Medicaid funding or implement further eligibility restrictions.”

Just as important: I know that scores of you have used the AAFP’s Speak Out tool to ask that your members of Congress protect Medicaid, adding your own stories about what your community needs.  

These messages are getting through. Amid considerable uncertainty on Capitol Hill right now, we’re hearing serious concern from lawmakers about the potential consequences of Medicaid cuts.

That means it’s time to get even louder. Please join the AAFP’s leadership in raising the pressure on Congress to protect Medicaid, correct Medicare physician payment, build the family medicine workforce and strengthen access to primary care. Here’s how:

• Use our Speak Out tool to contact your members of Congress directly.
• Make your advocacy public by tagging your lawmakers on social media when you urge action.
• Join the AAFP’s new Advocacy Ambassadors program. 
• Get involved with your state chapter.
• Register to attend the AAFP’s Family Medicine Advocacy Summit — our biggest in-person policy event of the year—in June.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to grassroots@aafp.org.