House bill would create 15K new residency positions

A bipartisan House bill reintroduced Thursday would create 15,000 more medical residency positions under Medicare in a move to alleviate the looming U.S. doctor shortage.

The measure from Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) would mandate that 50 percent of the positions train residents in primary care.

It would also require federal health officials to study the specialty needs of the U.S. healthcare system as they evolve and allocate residencies accordingly. 

"It's not a problem of people going into medicine," Schock told a press conference. "It's a problem of having the hands-on training at the teaching hospitals available."

The number of Medicare-sponsored residencies has not increased in 15 years, he said.

Groups like the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimate that the U.S. healthcare system will be short tens if not hundreds of thousands of doctors in the coming decades.

Thursday's bill would cost an estimated $9 billion to $10 billion over 10 years, Schwartz said. The 15,000 new positions would be added over a five-year period.

“Because it takes seven to 10 years to train a doctor, Congress must act now to increase Medicare’s support for graduate medical education," AAMC president Darrell Kirch said in a statement.

"Medical schools and teaching hospitals see these proposals as the beginning of a comprehensive strategy to improve the healthcare of all."

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