Washington, D.C., February 8, 2005 - Jordan J. Cohen, M.D., president of the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), issued the following comments on the Bush Administration's FY 2006 budget:

"Medicaid is a vital safety net for America's most vulnerable citizens. Children, seniors, the chronically ill and the disabled rely on Medicaid often because a serious long-term illness or lack of employee benefits makes private health insurance unavailable or unaffordable. The AAMC is opposed to cuts that will reduce or eliminate coverage for these individuals and further stretch the already taut health care safety net provided by teaching hospitals and medical school physicians.

The AAMC is also deeply disappointed that the president's 2006 proposal is a rerun of last year's budget with insufficient federal support for medical research. Specifically, the president's recommended increase of 0.7 percent for the National Institutes of Health for the third year in a row is well below the rate of inflation and is woefully inadequate to sustain the promising pace of medical research. If this funding trend continues, America's position as the world leader in research will be threatened. The Bush budget also proposes a $9 million cut in VA research at a time when our nation is seeing an influx of wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Medical research is a critical part of our national defense against illness, disease and disability, and should be a top priority.

In addition, we are very concerned that the administration has either eliminated or drastically cut health professions education, the Health Community Access Program, and Rural Health Grants - programs that provide much needed health care to underserved and rural communities.

We are counting on Congress to reverse many of these proposed cuts so that American citizens who desperately depend on these critical health care programs remain protected, and the progress of medical research is sustained."

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The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing all 129 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and 94 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 109,000 faculty members, 67,000 medical students, and 104,000 resident physicians. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

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