We advocate for physician-led care and truth and transparency in healthcare credentialing. You can help us!
We need more well-trained physicians.
For physicians, medical school is only the beginning. After graduation, physicians—now called residents—begin up to nine years of specialty training, or graduate medical education (GME). This training, required for licensure, is where pediatricians learn how to care for children and cardiologists learn how to treat patients with heart conditions. Funding for GME helps ensure enough residents learn to provide the care we need, when we need it.
Residents are serving the underserved.
Roughly 40% of all charity care in the U.S. is provided by teaching facilities where residents learn—that’s 8.4 billion dollars in care1. Specifically, teaching hospitals deliver 20% of all hospital care, providing for seniors, veterans and patients in underserved communities. Residents also often stay and practice in the cities and towns where they trained, benefiting local communities.
What is the problem?
Despite the value of training physicians for our communities, Congress repeatedly considers cuts to GME. The current law put caps on the number of federally funded residency training positions, freezing the number available to that which existed in 1996. This lack of funding limits physician training, hindering access to care.
What’s wrong with this picture?
As the U.S. population ages, and as greater numbers of Americans suffer from multiple chronic conditions, we need more physicians to provide care. Yet, the Association of American Medical Colleges forecasts a physician shortage of between 40,800 and 104,900 by 2030 unless we increase the number of physicians trained: Congress can help by providing adequate GME funding.
How You Can Help
Protecting funding for GME training is essential to maintaining patient access to care.
“SaveGME” is an ongoing effort to encourage patients, physicians, residents and medical students to urge Congress to protect GME funding and training for our next generation of physicians.
Join the movement — tell Congress that adequate GME funding is essential to ensuring access to care for all Americans. Or, visit the Patients Action Network to see how cuts to GME could hinder your access to quality care.
Get Involved
Preserve funding for GME!
Protect your access to high-quality health care. Ask your representatives to maintain adequate funding for graduate medical education today.