Graduate Medical Education

Federal Budget Cuts Threaten Graduate Medical Education:

In their efforts to reduce the federal deficit the partisan negotiators seem to agree on one issue only: drastic cuts of the Medicare subsidy for postgraduate medical education and funding reduction for advanced equipment that teaching hospital require to train young doctors.

The recommendations made by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, currently under consideration, would cut about $5.8 billion in graduate medical education funding from the nation’s teaching hospitals. This represents a 53% cut compared to the current $10.9 billion in payments!! The Simpson Bowles Commission, which advised President Obama on debt and deficit reduction called in December 2010 for reducing “excess” payments to hospitals for medical education. The commission said the payments could be brought in line with the costs of medical education by limiting the direct subsidy to 120 % of the national average salary paid to residents. A second, indirect subsidy, which pays for intensive services and advanced equipment should also be reduced.

The proposed draconian cuts will jeopardize the sorely needed expansion of graduate medical education in the U.S . and exacerbate the looming physicians shortage. Who will care for the baby boomers seeking medical services? Who will provide primary care physicians once millions of Americans gain access to healthcare coverage in 2014?

The proposed measures are based on penny wise and pound foolish approaches to cover our federal deficit and ignore the long-term investments needed to protect our crumbling healthcare service infrastructure in the U.S. The suggestions were developed by politicians with a limited political life cycle instead by healthcare planners who are being tasked to develop policy and not politics.

I suggest to review thoughtful proposals such as the Nineteenth Report by the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME) entitled “ Enhancing Flexibility in Graduate Medical Education” http://www.hrsa.gov/advisorycommittees/bhpradvisory/cogme/Reports/nineteenthrpt.pdf before throwing out the baby with the bath water.

The future of our healthcare is at stake and politicians must step aside to let experts take charge.

Yours

Bernd