A Fenty Administration will:
• Work to ease the burden on health care providers by removing obstacles that have forced too many health care providers out of the city. The availability of convenient, quality health care leads to more positive and vibrant communities. In turn it is imperative to provide health care providers with incentives to help create a healthier city for our residents.

• Focus on improving primary care and making it accessible to people in every community.

• Aggressively tackle the growing challenge that HIV/AIDS presents to our community. I will support increased testing and offering of expanded counseling options and education. I will do this by making sure we spend every dollar that we can get from the federal government to increase our ability to fight this epidemic. I will encourage the Department of Health to continue to expand partnerships with non-profit community health care providers to leverage our dollars to serve more people. I will also work with the faith community to educate people about this epidemic. See the Fenty HIV/AIDS Plan 

• Work to expand substance abuse treatment and prevention programs. Because substance abuse has a direct connection to many problems that face our city, it is imperative to expand these programs to include program agendas that enhance job readiness, good parenting and public safety. Science has proven that every dollar spent in early treatment saves $7 in social costs and another $5 in personal and family costs. The State of Washington has just acted on that science, budgeting $32 million a year for adult drug treatment – to be paid directly by savings in primary health care. They are capturing savings at the same time that they are doing the right thing. We need to get in front of problems in DC in the same way. 

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