We are a small specialty, but your contributions to RheumPAC have amplified our voice on the Hill. To continue to support and grow that voice, we need your help. In addition to your 2021 contribution, ask your colleagues to join you in supporting the advocacy priorities that will ensure the future of rheumatology.
Visit www.rheumpac.org to help us start the year off strong by making your 2021 donation or setting up a smaller monthly recurring donation to help rheumatology.
Thank you again to everyone who has invested in RheumPAC and supported advocacy for ACR/ARP, its members and our patients. Your contributions are critical to advancing ACR/ARP advocacy!
Zach Wallace, MD, MSc, is a rheumatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and the chair of RheumPAC, the ACR’s nonpartisan political action committee.
RheumPAC FAQ
What is the function of RheumPAC?
RheumPAC’s mission is to educate, support and thank key partners in Congress. Advancing the ACR’s legislative priorities requires collaboration with healthcare policy stakeholders in Congressional offices. Action on Capitol Hill will not occur if legislators are unaware or not supportive of the policy needs of rheumatology patients and providers.
How is RheumPAC funded, and where does the money go?
RheumPAC is funded by individual contributions of ACR/ARP members. Every single dollar raised (no money is spent on administrative or overhead costs) goes directly to carefully chosen congressional campaigns. These campaigns are selected and approved by ACR/ARP members with the goal of maximizing our influence in enacting legislative changes. We invite all ACR/ARP members to nominate campaigns to be considered. Your donations should be seen as an investment in bringing about positive, tangible, financial outcomes due to federal policy changes.
Why is RheumPAC critical?
First, Congress is a complicated place (to say the least). It is naive to think that the messages from rheumatology patients and providers resonate through lobbying and grassroots advocacy alone. There are many competing interests with sizable resources at their disposal. For example, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, whose priorities often differ sharply from ours, spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on campaign contributions and lobbying the federal government. If ACR/ARP members remain on the sidelines and do not contribute to RheumPAC, our message will fall on deaf ears, drowned out by the interests of the well-funded insurance and pharmaceutical industries. To help strengthen our voice, RheumPAC often joins forces with our peer medical groups to support candidates who champion our common interests in challenges facing providers from various specialties and patients with complex conditions.
