Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am pleased to be joined by Senator Blunt in the reintroduction of the Building a Health Care Workforce for the Future Act. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, by 2025, there will be a shortage of up to 90,000 physicians. Approximately 1/3 of the shortage, up to 31,100 will be in primary care. Individuals and families living in underserved areas, urban and rural, will continue to be those most disadvantaged by this shortage. Last year, we expanded our health care system to provide health insurance to millions more Americans. In fact, recent studies have shown that the uninsured rate has decreased to the lowest level since 1997 over the last 2 years. In Rhode Island, the uninsured rate decreased by half, down to 5 percent. As a result, millions of Americans are going to the doctor for preventive health care for the first time. In order for these efforts to be successful, we must expand our health care workforce to ensure that we have enough health care professionals to treat the newly insured. The Building a Health Care Workforce for the Future Act would authorize programs that would grow the overall number of health care providers, as well as encourage providers to pursue careers in geographic and practice areas of highest need. Building on the success of the National Health Service Corp, NHSC, Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs, and the State Loan Repayment Program, this legislation would establish a state scholarship program.…”