It is critical that patients and clinicians be permitted to make patient-focused treatment decisions. Barriers to doctors making informed decisions for their patients pose potentially serious risks of negative health consequences. Pharmaceutical step-therapy, non-medical switching by formulary managers and insurance companies, barriers to specialty care, and other policies that interfere with independent clinical judgment of a patient’s treatment team do not serve the health of the individual and create harmful obstacles to improved health and wellness.

Ensuring the health care of individuals with autoimmune disease requires affordable and accessible care. The availability of copay assistance programs and other programs and policies that facilitate affordability and access to prescribed care for patients are critical for patients with serious and chronic conditions, including patients with autoimmune diseases.

Autoimmune diseases are complex and often difficult to diagnose. Many patients live years without being properly diagnosed, and others are never diagnosed. Of those affected with autoimmunity three-fourths are women. Additionally, people of color are disproportionately affected and frequently face additional hurdles in access to care.

The Autoimmune Association is committed to increasing investment in autoimmune research programs through mechanisms such as the Department of Defense Congressionally-Directed Medical Research Program , the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Autoimmune Diseases Coordinating Committee (ADCC), and other autoimmune disease research.