Nicole V. Baptista
As the US House of Representatives and Senate start begin reconciling their health care reform legislation, the academic internal medicine community has one last chance to advocate for provisions that were missing from the Senate and House bills. The Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) urges you to contact your Congressional representatives and encourage them to include language in the final health care reform legislation that would increase residency training positions in primary care specialties by 15%.
When the House of Representatives and Senate passed their health care reform bills November 17, 2009, and December 24, 2009, respectively, they did not include provisions to increase the number of internal medicine residency training positions. In one last push to advocate for this important provision, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has drafted a letter that you can use to contact President Barack H. Obama and your members of Congress. The letter asks for the 15% increase in residency training positions and outlines the importance of increasing the number of physicians to respond to the increase in access the final bill will likely create.
To send your letter, access AAMC’s legislative action center and provide your name, address, and ZIP code. The system will generate and deliver a personalized letter from you to your respective senators and representative as well as President Obama. Please act soon to ensure Congress includes this important provision in the final version of health care reform legislation.