Welcome and Thank You for taking the time to learn more about my candidacy. I believe together we can build a better, more effective AMA. I humbly ask for your support for the Resident and Fellow seat on the AMA Board of Trustees so we can work toward making that vision a reality!

Have questions or comments? Email me at eae2008@gmail.com

EITING
FIGHTING FOR YOU!
Health Care Reform
The President and Congress are committed to health system reform, and we are fortunate to be direct participants in crafting a palatable public-private partnership. We need to make sure we continue to have a seat at the table so any new plan is designed to be patient-centered and also focused on physicians needs to provide appropriate care.

Covering the Uninsured
With so many Americans losing their jobs and their insurance at the same time, health coverage has become an even more vital priority. We must work with all stakeholders to ensure that everyone has coverage to prevent the dire health and economic consequences of perpetuating a system where millions remain uninsured.

Liability
We have made some valuable progress through legislation in a number of states, but the vast majority of states still require protections for physicians and mechanisms to control the exorbitant increases in liability premiums. We need to work with our elected officials and appropriate partners to control the cost of liability and prevent this burden from pushing physicians out of practice or out of states that desperately require their services.

Changing the HOD
Our Speakers have identified a wide variety of options to decrease cost and improve efficiency. Eliminating the interim meeting is one possibility that requires careful consideration. Whatever changes we make, we must protect the democratic process of the House and ensure the House monitors and controls the evolution of our AMA.

Medical Education
We need to retain our autonomy in teaching and training physicians. We should not allow for new licensing exams unless there is a proven benefit to doing so, and our licensing exams should only be used for evaluating the training of physicians. We need to work vigorously to ensure that students and residents can afford medical education so we
may continue to recruit the best and brightest candidates to become future physicians.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

NPR: Subsidizing College Loans Under Fire in Congress

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103291509

I heard about this on NPR on my way to work the other day, and found it interesting. The idea is to shift subsidies for private student loans to funding for Federal Pell Grants. The argument is that the government spends much more money on subsidies for private student loans than they do on directly loaning aid through federal programs. Federal Pell Grants, unlike loans, provide aid to students without a need for repayment. At the same time, these grants are reserved almost exclusively for undergraduate education. Medical students frequently rely on private student loans to cover the cost of education and living. A shift of funds to undergraduate education at the expense of medical education could make the soaring costs of medical school unsustainable. Discussion on this issue is in the preliminary stages, but expect to hear more about this in the future.

Erick
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Disclaimer: This is a personal website website, and the opinions expressed in no way represent those of the AMA, the RFS, or any other organization with which I am affiliated or have mentioned.