New Patient Advocacy Coalition Focuses on Access to Affordable, Quality Care

A new coalition of patient advocacy groups representing more than 10 million patients launched in Washington, DC, with the goal of providing better healthcare for Americans.

The Partners for Better Care coalition seeks to improve healthcare in the US and its inaugural members are AIDS United, American Liver Foundation, Amputee Coalition, the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, Hemophilia Federation of America, the MAGIC Foundation, National MS Society, Parkinson’s Action Network, and United Cerebral Palsy.

“High quality medical care is available in the United States, but many Americans are unable to access the care they need,” Mary Richards, executive director of Partners for Better Care, said in a statement. “Access to affordable, patient-centered care is critical.”

Despite the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, healthcare costs remain an issue for 31% of Americans, who have put off medical treatment because they could not afford it, according to the results of a recent Gallup poll.

The first action of the Partners for Better Care coalition will be to release a Patient Charter that will outline grounding principles across 6 areas: predictable, manageable out-of-pocket costs, and limited cost shifting; transparency of cost and quality information; provider network adequacy; reasonable health system costs; fair and stable formularies and equitable access to therapies; and an easy, quick, fair and understandable appeals process.

Today, the solution is about access to care and treatment—and it can only be realized through transparent and comprehensive health care, fair and equitable access to medicines, assuring patients’ rights to dignified and culturally competent care, and through stable and reasonable costs,” said Michael Kaplan, president and CEO of AIDS United. At AIDS United, we believe this can all be achieved through collective voice and working across diseases—we believe this can be achieved, and that PBC will provide us a critical path to ensuring so.”