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HPNEC Press Release on the President's Budget

Contact: Nicole Buckley
202-828-0041
nbuckley@aamc.org

For Immediate Release:

HEALTH CARE COALITION SAYS BUSH BUDGET CUTS
WILL THREATEN ACCESS TO CARE
Elimination of Health Professions Programs Will Stress Healthcare Worker Shortage

Washington, D.C., February 7, 2003 - The Health Professions and Nursing Education Coalition (HPNEC) expressed concern today that President Bush's proposed fiscal year 2004 budget cuts to Title VII and VIII health professions programs will threaten access to care for people in rural and underserved areas, placing further stress on the country's shortage of health professionals.

The President's FY 2004 budget proposes, as it did last year, to drastically cut these programs that educate and train a variety of health care providers. The Bush administration is proposing just $109 million for programs that were funded at $378 million in FY 2002. These massive cuts will eliminate most of the health professions training programs.

Titles VII and VIII of the Public Health Service Act are designed to increase access to health care in underserved areas by improving the quality, geographic distribution, and racial and ethnic diversity of the health care workforce. HPNEC is recommending that these programs need at least $550 million in FY 2004 to fulfill this mission.

Although the Bush budget proposal includes a plan to expand the nation's network of community-based health centers to meet the health care needs of the uninsured and underinsured, it essentially eliminates the funds needed to train the health care workers who often staff these clinics. HPNEC questions the administration's commitment to improving access to health care for underserved populations, as the budget dismantles programs that are designed to meet this need.

Among the President's cuts to health professions programs:

• All diversity training programs are eliminated, other than $10 million for Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students - a decrease of $36 million (78 percent) below the FY 2002 appropriation level. These diversity training programs increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the health care workforce to more accurately represent the makeup of the nation's population.

• The primary care medicine and dentistry programs are also eliminated. These programs increase the number of primary care providers, particularly in rural and other underserved areas.
• All interdisciplinary programs are eliminated in the FY 2004 budget. These programs include Area Health Education Centers, Health Education and Training Centers, Geriatric Training, the Quentin Burdick Rural Training, and Allied Health, which exemplify the health professions programs' emphasis on interdisciplinary training and caring for underserved populations.
• Public health workforce programs, which support public health traineeships, preventive medicine residencies, dental public health training, and health administration traineeships, are also eliminated, at a time when the nation's public health system desperately needs well-trained public health workers.

The Title VIII nurse training and education programs, which are crucial to alleviating the nationwide nursing shortage, receive just $98 million in the President's proposed budget, the same level recommended in the FY 2003 budget. The budget fails to direct money to address the critical shortage of nursing faculty as authorized in the Nurse Reinvestment Act.

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HPNEC is an informal alliance of over 40 organizations representing a variety of schools, programs, and individuals dedicated to educating health care professionals. For more information visit http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/hpnec/.