D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is forming a commission to make recommendations for transforming the city’s health-care system, a stark acknowledgment of continuing disparities and troubling developments under her watch.
“It is a tale of two cities,” said Wayne Turnage, the deputy mayor for health and human services. “On the one hand, you have a system that is the envy of the nation in many senses. . . . But on the other, you have a system that’s woefully inadequate in the east end of the city.”
The 26-member commission will include representatives from hospitals, insurers, health advocacy groups and D.C. government agencies. It will be co-chaired by former Council member David Catania, who now runs a lobbying firm, and Sister Carol Keehan, who recently retired as chief executive of the Catholic Health Association of the United States.
The commission is supposed to make policy recommendations to the mayor by December.
Among other areas, the commission is tasked with coming up with solutions to the lack of urgent care in Southeast D.C. and how to improve access to maternal and behavioral health care.
City officials said the District faces unique health-care challenges because doctors and hospital beds are plentiful, but residents often rely on emergency rooms for medical care and some travel long distances for specialty care.
The panel’s formation comes as city officials are trying to negotiate a deal with George Washington University Hospital to build a new hospital in Southeast D.C. to replace United Medical Center.