In an April 28 letter to its lead sponsors, the AAMC endorsed the Medical Student Education Authorization Act, which would authorize the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Medical Student Education (MSE) Program through fiscal year (FY) 2025. The bipartisan legislation was reintroduced on May 2nd by Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Dina Titus (D-Nev.) and Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).
Cole’s press release on the bill’s reintroduction quoted AAMC Chief Public Policy Officer Danielle Turnipseed JD, MHSA, MPP, who said, “We appreciate that your bill would expand training for medical students and reinforce academic medicine’s efforts to train culturally conscious providers who can identify and better address challenges to health equity in under-resourced communities. … The bill's grant program has demonstrated effectiveness as an important complement to other programs that successfully recruit and retain medical professionals in under-resourced and historically marginalized communities, and we welcome the bill's unique efforts to further reinforce these goals and develop strategic partnerships in communities with the greatest unmet need for primary care providers.”
The AAMC joined the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, the Children’s Hospital Association, the National Rural Health Association, the National Indian Health Board, the National Council of Urban Indian Health, and various Oklahoma health partners in endorsing this bill.
The MSE program supports higher education institutions in states with the highest primary care workforce shortages. The program recruits and trains medical students from rural, tribal, and under-resourced communities, with the goal of retaining them in these communities. Authorizing the MSE program through FY 2025 aligns the program’s authorization dates with other HRSA Title VII programs.
The AAMC recommends $1.51 billion for the HRSA Title VII and VIII programs in FY 2024 [refer to Washington Highlights, March 24].