Every doctor needs to
complete residency training.
But funding for residency
training has effectively
been frozen since 1997.
If congress doesn’t
increase that funding, the
American Doctor Shortage
won’t be a story...
It will become
our reality.
But it didn’t have
to be like this...
...because we saw this coming.
And it’s time
for us to make them do it.
Dear Member of Congress:
Every single American has faced a time when he, she, or a loved one is sick, injured, and in need of a doctor’s care.
For most people, this isn’t a problem today — in fact, we can sometimes take the ability to see a doctor when we need one for granted. But unless Congress acts to increase federal support for training doctors, there soon won’t be enough to provide the care that people need.
The facts are simple: Our population is aging. It is also growing. Demand for medical care is higher than ever — and in fact, medical schools have been expanding enrollment to meet this demand. Yet since 1997, federal support for graduate medical education (GME), the training every doctor needs before they can practice independently, has effectively been frozen.
If you do not act to expand support for GME, America will face a shortage of as many as 90,000 physicians by 2025. And because it takes at least seven years to train a doctor, the time to act is right now.
As an American voter, I urge you to vote to expand funding for residency training. We simply cannot keep America healthy without enough doctors.
Signed,
[Your Name Here]