Policy Engagement
SWHR signed on to a letter urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to endorse H.R. 8067, a bill introduced by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) to direct the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to conduct or support research on critical health care delivery system issues in response to COVID-19.
Our nation’s health care system is facing unprecedented challenges and strains as it reacts to the pandemic and cares for millions of infected patients. This pandemic has also shed light on differences in health outcomes and disease progression in women versus men, and laid bare the deep racial and ethnic inequities in health care as people of color are disproportionately being infected and suffering worse outcomes.
AHRQ is the only federal agency that funds health services research at universities and other research institutions throughout the nation on health care delivery systems. This bill would provide important agency funding to study telehealth expansion and efficacy, racial and ethnic disparity mitigation strategies, and vaccine access to at-risk populations. SWHR is one of 95 organizations supporting this letter led by the Friends of AHRQ.