[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 25, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E950]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       REPEALING MANDATORY FUNDING FOR GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. ALLYSON Y. SCHWARTZ

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 24, 2011

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1216) to 
     amend the Public Health Service Act to convert funding for 
     graduate medical education in qualified teaching health 
     centers from direct appropriations to an authorization of 
     appropriations:

  Ms. SCHWARTZ. Mr. Chair, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 1216.
  This legislation is yet another Republican attack on health care 
innovations that promise to increase patient access to care. We must 
make a successful transition to a more efficient, high-quality health 
system and, through health care reform, we can.
  Instead, Republicans are making every effort to undermine this 
mission by chipping away at the graduate medical education system.
  H.R. 1216 threatens progress toward patient-centered health care 
delivery, in which primary physicians ensure that patients receive 
preventive, comprehensive and ongoing care.
  Academic medical centers have long been integral to developing 
innovative treatments and assuring access to care for Americans who 
need the most help. As we begin to implement health care reform, these 
institutions are seeking to become leaders in biomedical science as 
well as innovators in new delivery models.
  The Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, for example, 
was recently approved as a patient-centered medical home. The Hospital 
and its network of physicians is now offering patients a new model of 
coordinated, continuous care in an academic setting, all while 
improving quality and reducing costs.
  Community-based training, such as the teaching health center program, 
is a valuable supplement to our Nation's prestigious teaching 
hospitals.
  Our Nation faces a crisis in access to primary care--more than 1.3 
million Medicare beneficiaries have difficulty finding a new primary 
care physician.
  In 1961, half of U.S. physicians were generalists, primarily general 
practitioners. Since then, the percentage has dramatically declined, 
while the cost of delivering care has increased substantially.
  While our Nation's hospital-based teaching programs yield thousands 
of highly trained physicians, we simply do not have the capacity to 
meet demand--specifically when it comes to primary care.
  The teaching health center program is uniquely positioned to address 
primary care training for underserved populations.
  Community-based training models, such as teaching health centers, 
will serve the Nation by creating new capacity in our graduate medical 
education system, which will lead to an increase in the total number of 
primary care physicians.
  Primary care and community-based health centers, particularly, 
produce excellent outcomes at lower costs, and have the potential to 
save the system billions of dollars annually by preventing avoidable 
emergency room visits.
  If every American made use of primary care, the health care system 
would see $67 billion in savings annually.
  Yet this bill would create uncertainty and unpredictability in a 
program intended to move us toward this ideal.
  I urge my colleagues to support training of primary care physicians 
and cost-saving innovations by opposing H.R. 1216.

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