Issues
AAMC Action Advocacy Priorities
AAMC Action advocacy focuses on key policy priorities integral to the success of the academic medicine community and its efforts to improve the health of people everywhere. These policies have a wide-ranging impact on the nation’s medical schools, academic health systems, teaching hospitals, and their patients. Take action and read more information on issues and policies impacting academic medicine below.
As the nation faces an impending doctor shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, the AAMC Action community fights to expand federal investment in Medicare-supported graduate medical education (GME) funding, and advocates for bipartisan legislation that would alleviate the physician shortage, diversify the physician workforce, and improve access to care for patients nationwide.
Medical schools and teaching health systems and hospitals continuously work across all of their missions by collaborating with communities to ensure all people have the same opportunities to reach their full health potential—a state of health equity. These institutions create the evidence base that makes the case for policies, partnerships, and practices that facilitate health equity and act as anchor institutions in their communities, building trust and collaborating with community-based organizations to distribute resources to improve community health.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Title VII workforce development programs are crucial in training a diverse and culturally competent health workforce to treat our nation’s most vulnerable patients. The Title VII programs, funded through annual federal appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services, invest in scholarship, loan repayment, and mentorship programs for future health care professionals from underrepresented minority, rural, and disadvantaged backgrounds. The AAMC works to secure support for these programs for the benefit of the health care professionals, students, and the patients they serve.
Sustained, meaningful growth in medical research funding today pays a lifetime of dividends in saving lives, promoting better health outcomes, and improving the quality of life for all Americans. AAMC Action works to expand the federal investment in medical research funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
For more information about issues critical to the academic medicine community, visit our advocacy and policy page.