April 12, 2001--The AAMC endorses legislation introduced April 6 by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) that would establish a medical education trust fund to support America's medical schools and teaching institutions.

The "Medical Education Trust Fund Act of 2001" would set Federal policy to ensure explicit, dedicated, long-term sources of funding by requiring Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance to contribute to a trust fund to support medical education. The conceptual framework for the legislation, and the provisions within it, are in agreement with the AAMC's longstanding position that a shared responsibility approach should support the costs of undergraduate and graduate medical education. Medical education is the responsibility of all who benefit from it and therefore all must share in the responsibility to support it.

The creation of an explicit, dedicated, long-term source of medical education funding is critical as recent trends in the health care delivery system have had major implications on how medical education is financed. With the growth of managed systems of care and increased competition within health care markets, decreased payments to teaching hospitals and physicians have eroded the ability of teaching institutions to cover the costs associated with their mission to provide education and specialized graduate training for future physicians and biomedical scientists. Recent changes in Medicare and Medicaid funding for graduate medical education have added further to the financial pressure on teaching institutions.

The Association also is highly supportive of the Rhode Island Academic Medicine coalition, comprising the state's seven teaching hospitals and the Brown Medical School. This coalition is helping to raise awareness about the importance of academic medicine and is advocating state and federal policy to help advance medical education and the mission of teaching hospitals.

The Reed legislation and the Rhode Island Academic Medicine coalition are indicative of the need to fight for the financial health of our medical schools and teaching hospitals. We commend Sen. Reed and his co-sponsors, Sen. Clinton (D-NY) and Schumer (D-NY) for their leadership on behalf of these vital health care institutions and for their commitment to ensure that medical schools and teaching hospitals' invaluable contributions-groundbreaking research, highly skilled medical care, and the training of tomorrow's physicians-will continue.

The AAMC strongly believes our medical schools and teaching institutions are national treasures and deserve explicit and dedicated funding to guarantee that the U.S. continues to lead the world in the quality of its medical education and its health care delivery.

###
The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including 74 Veterans Administration medical centers; 91 academic and professional societies representing over 100,000 faculty members; and the nation's 67,000 medical students and 102,000 residents.

Contact Us    © 1995-2008 AAMC    Terms and Conditions    Privacy Statement