Advocacy
Fighting for family medicine in Texas
Get involved and help support family medicine
TAFP serves as your voice in the Texas Legislature. We have a team of advocates with strong relationships throughout the Capitol and in state agencies working on your behalf. We continue to make strides for the specialty, but we couldn’t do it without your help. We invite you to get involved in the fight for family medicine.
Physician of the Day
As a service to the Texas Legislature, the Texas Academy of Family Physicians provides a physician in the Capitol for legislative sessions. This tradition started in 1971 and TAFP has provided a physician in the Capitol for every legislative session including special sessions since. This program is organized by TAFP and supported by the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Texas Medical Association. The Physician of the Day is introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives each day and his or her name becomes a permanent part of the official legislative record.
LEARN ABOUT THE PHYSICIAN OF THE DAY PROGRAM
Key Contacts
State and federal lawmakers are making decisions that directly affect your patients and your practice. As legislative battles heat up, legislators need to hear from family physicians about how medicine should be practiced. TAFP’s Key Contacts program uses family physicians to serve as resources to their legislators to advocate for family medicine and patient care.
Who Represents Me?
The “Who Represents Me?” tool, provided by the Texas Legislature, provides information about current districts and members of the Texas Senate, Texas House of Representatives, the Texas delegation to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and the State Board of Education.
Advocacy 101: Your primer on grassroots advocacy
Your patients need you to get involved in the political process. Two nationally renowned political consultants give a step-by-step guide for those new to the Capitol scene and for seasoned veterans.
Coalition affiliations
TAFP is a charter member of the Texas Public Health Coalition. Created in 2006, the coalition is a collection of organizations that share an interest in advancing core public health principles at the state and community levels. In particular, the coalition addresses the leading causes of death and disability in Texas – cancer, tobacco usage, stroke, and obesity – through:
- Increased awareness and visibility of Texas’ public health infrastructure and level of wellness;
- Meaningful, evidence-based policies and legislation; and
- The removal of barriers to wellness.
TAFP is a member of the Texas Immunization Stakeholder Working Group, a coalition of public sector, private sector, and community groups. TISWG was formulated as a recommendation of various studies and legislation passed by the 78th Legislature to increase partnerships across the state to raise vaccine coverage levels and improve immunization practices for all Texans.
TAFP is a member of the Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition, a coalition made up of statewide partners ranging from health care and public policy organizations to faith-based groups. The coalition advocates for sufficient funding for state programs that provide accessible health care to low- and moderate-income women across Texas. During the 2013 Texas Legislature the coalition successfully worked to restore funding to programs that provide preventive and contraceptive care for women. Read about the session in this Texas Family Physician article.
TAFP is a member of the Texas Tobacco Control Coalition, a diverse group of statewide organizations working together legislatively to reduce the use of tobacco and e-cigarette products in Texas, and increase quit attempts through evidence-based strategies.
Past policy publications
The state of health care in Texas
The Primary Care Marshall Plan: A Five-Point Plan to Transform Health Care in Texas
COVID-19 exposed the ways that our health system fails patients. The pandemic revealed flaws in our payment systems, demonstrated how our rules and regulations inhibit technological progress in health care and highlighted how our public health surveillance system is inadequate to contain the spread of disease.
It also provides us the opportunity to repair and rebuild a stronger, more resilient system prepared for future public health crises. This five point plan contains a set of policies designed to transform health care delivery in Texas through improved access to primary care.
Condition critical: The case for rescuing primary care in Texas
This Texas Family Physician article describes the possible threats to the state’s economy and citizens if the Texas Legislature continues to ignore the primary care workforce shortage throughout the state.
The Primary Solution: Mending Texas’ Fractured Health Care System
This document created by TAFP and its partners in the Primary Care Coalition defines recommendations to fight the health care crisis facing Texas and lay the foundation for an efficient health care delivery system.
Physician workforce and graduate medical education
The right kind of doctors for Texas: Revisiting barriers to building the primary care workforce, 20 years later
This Texas Family Physician article recalls twenty years ago, when TAFP called for changes in medical education to ensure Texas would have the primary care physician workforce needed to care for a rapidly growing population. Now, the state is in a perilous position as academic institutions have no financial incentive to train new primary care physicians and medical students are actively discouraged from these disciplines.
GME 101: What you need to know about graduate medical education in Texas
With funding as complex as graduate medical education – part federal, part state, and part institutional support – it is easy to get lost in the explanation. This document is a primer that covers the basics of GME.
Scope of practice
The Question of Independent Diagnosis and Prescriptive Authority for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses in Texas: Is the Reward Worth the Risk?
Primary Care Coalition Issue Briefs — Collaboration Between Physicians and Nurses Works:
- Collaboration Between Physicians and Nurse Practitioners Contains Health Care Costs
- Compare the Education Requirements of Primary Care Physicians and Nurse Practitioners
- Primary Care Physicians Are the Most Likely Health Care Professionals to Practice in Rural and Underserved Areas