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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Josh Shapiro |
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Shapiro bill would help Pa. attract and keep doctors,
strengthen Pa.'s health care system
Doctors urge Senate to follow House and pass bill
HARRISBURG, April 8 – House-passed legislation sponsored by state Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, to strengthen Pennsylvania’s health-care system by encouraging more doctors to practice medicine in the Commonwealth was the topic of a Capitol press conference today.
Health care advocates from across the Commonwealth called on the Senate to follow the House’s lead and pass Shapiro’s bill.
Shapiro’s proposal (H.B. 1093) would provide 100 percent medical school loan forgiveness for primary care doctors and obstetricians/gynecologists who agree to practice in Pennsylvania for 10 years. Qualified participants would receive a portion of their total medical school loan debt each year for 10 years. If a participant failed to practice in Pennsylvania for the full 10 years, he or she would be required to pay back the payments they received from the state.
Shapiro said currently, Pennsylvania is failing to attract new doctors. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, only 7.8 percent of Pennsylvania physicians providing direct patient care are 34 or younger, while nearly 50 percent are 50 or older. Of the ob-gyns providing direct patient care, 9 percent are between the ages of 20-34, while 47 percent are 50 or older. What’s more, almost half of the physicians providing direct patient care in the state plan to retire in the next 10 years. Shapiro believes it is imperative to reverse this trend if Pennsylvania hopes to keep our health care system strong, viable, and sustainable.
"While the percentage of resident physicians in Pennsylvania has increased over the last 10 years, the percent of residents remaining in the state to practice after completing their training has decreased significantly over the same period," Shapiro said. "With the growing demand for health care in the state, coupled with a large number of physicians retiring in the next decade, we are facing a crisis that needs to be addressed now. Providing incentives for doctors to practice in Pennsylvania is vital to our health-care system in Pennsylvania."
Shapiro said Pennsylvania's health-care community supports the bill as a way to keep doctors in Pennsylvania. Representatives of the Hospital and Healthsystem of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania chapter of the American College of Physicians, and the Pennsylvania Medical Society were in attendance at today’s news conference and urged the Senate to pass Shapiro’s bill.
The bill received bipartisan support in the House, passing by an overwhelming 191-9 last June. However, the bill has been bottled up in the Senate Education Committee for the past nine months.
Dr. David Turkewitz, president of the Pennsylvania American Academy of Pediatrics and chairman of Pediatrics at York Hospital, said, "We commend and support Representative Shapiro’s efforts to address the crushing burden of medical school debt for young doctors and for working to attract and retain primary care physicians to Pennsylvania in the fields of internal medicine, family practice, pediatric and obstetrics and gynecology. We urge Sen. Rhoades to move this bill out of his committee. It is critical that this bill receives a vote by the full Senate."
Shapiro is deputy speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and represents the 153rd Legislative District in Montgomery County. For more information, please visit www.pahouse.com/Shapiro.
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