The federal government is expanding community health centers in rural and inner-city areas. But federal funding to train the family physicians who staff those centers is in limbo. You can help nudge Congress to protect the specialty's training funds.
For the third consecutive year, HHS has proposed completely zeroing out funds in Section 747 of Title VII of the Public Health Service Act -- which supports training in primary care, including family medicine -- for the next fiscal year. While it didn't support eliminating the funds entirely, the House Appropriations Committee voted July 14 to slash Section 747's funding from $81.7 million for 2004 to $63.86 million for 2005. The $81.7 million in 2004 reflected about a $10 million cut in funding compared with 2003.
You can play a vital role in keeping Section 747 alive by contacting your federal lawmakers and sharing your views about the need for the funds. You might want to read a backgrounder (at http://www.aafp.org/x20018.xml) and an AAFP press statement (at http://www.aafp.org/x28423.xml) before calling or visiting your legislators.
West, who has been at the Belair-Edison center nearly a decade, describes the center as a hybrid of family and geriatric practices that serves not only the growing uninsured population that lives nearby, but also a fair percentage of those from surrounding communities who seek out the center as their first health care option.
The potential impact of a further cut in Section 747 funding isn't lost on those who work in the community health centers. "For many reasons, family physicians are the lifeblood of the community health center," said Murray West, M.D., medical director of the Belair-Edison Family Health Center in Baltimore. "If we are going to have more community health centers, we need to ensure we have enough FPs in the pipeline to staff those centers."
FP Report is published by the AAFP
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Copyright © 2004 by American Academy of Family Physicians.