Repealing Mandatory Funding for Graduate Medical Education

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Foxx amendment and to the underlying 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.

This bill would eliminate mandatory funding that establishes new or expanding programs for medical residents in teaching health centers and unobligated funds previously appropriated to the grant program.

Under policies currently being considered by some in the House majority, academic medical centers and teaching hospitals face as much as $60 billion in cuts over the next 10 years to Medicare funding for indirect medical education and direct graduate medical education. These cuts would reduce indirect medical education payments by 60 percent from the current level of 5.5 percent to 2.2 percent, capping direct graduate medical education payments at 120 percent of the national average salary paid to residents.

It would reduce Federal funding for medical residency training, as wrong public policy. Given our present situation with the shortage of primary care and family practice physicians, and the expected future growth of our population, it makes no sense for the Republicans to end the present structure of Medicare. In 2010, 47.5 million people were covered by Medicare. We have 39.6 million at the age of 65 and older and 7.9 million disabled.

The Republican budget plan is a voucher plan that would raise health care costs and would immediately create higher costs for prescription drugs for our seniors and disabled. This plan would end Medicare's entitlement of guaranteed benefits and promote rationing by private insurance companies, who would make decisions on approving or disapproving treatments for our seniors and the disabled.

The Medicare program is efficiently managed, devoting less than 2 percent of its funding to administrative expenses. Medicare has dramatically improved the quality of life for seniors and the disabled. It is the largest source of health coverage in the Nation. Democrats are committed to strengthening Medicare, not tearing it down.

Under the guise of reform, Republicans desire to end Medicare as we know it today.

Last year, the Republicans promised the American people that jobs would be their number one priority. Well, I ask, where are the jobs? But, instead, they want to make draconian cuts to programs to help seniors and the disabled, the middle class, the poor and the needy, and yet provide tax cuts of over $1 trillion to millionaires and billionaires.

And so we ask, where are the jobs and where are the opportunities? The estimated 1-year impact of anticipated graduate medical education cuts for Illinois is $144 million for indirect medical education and $39 million for graduate and medical education, which totals $183 million. If there are no doctors, there can be no medical care.

I urge that we vote against these measures.

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