Professionalism Charter Provides Guidance to Health Care Organizations in These Troubled Times

These are troubling times for health care systems, physicians, and patients. With impending repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), more than 22 million Americans are at risk for losing all or part of their health insurance coverage, which will disproportionately affect working-class families (1). The resulting increase in uncompensated care, much of it through expensive emergency department visits, might be in the billions of dollars. Health care systems are worrying about how they can absorb this exponential rise in demand and cost and still provide high-quality and equitable care in a health care environment that is already overburdened.