Federal News & Issues

Oct 13, 2017

Washington, D.C. — Our organizations, which represent more than 560,000 physicians and medical students nationwide, are alarmed by the President’s decision to abruptly take away financial support that aids low-income families in purchasing health care coverage. The decision to discontinue cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments stands to hurt the most vulnerable individuals and families, raising cost for them and the federal government.

This decision is not consistent with the Administration’s pledge to provide individuals and families with more options to secure affordable health care coverage. Elimination of CSR payments makes that goal harder, if not impossible, to achieve.

Our organizations call on the United State Senate and House of Representatives to take immediate action to restore these payments. A...

Oct 06, 2017

ARLINGTON, Va. — The American Psychiatric Association (APA) today released the following statement regarding The Goldwater Rule:

“In the past year and a half, there have been numerous news articles and commentaries on The Goldwater Rule. The Goldwater Rule is an ethics principle that guides our physician members not to provide professional opinions in the media about the mental health of someone they have not personally examined and without patient consent or other legal authority. A personal examination includes ruling out physical causes of or other reasons for a behavior. Nothing about the Goldwater Rule discourages psychiatrists from providing education to the public about mental illnesses; in fact, APA encourages psychiatrists to educate the public about the causes, symptoms, and treatment of mental illnesses...