Last week, the House Committee on Energy & Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health held a hearing entitled “Examining Existing Federal Programs to Build a Stronger Health Workforce and Improve Primary Care”. The Subcommittee heard from Carole Johnson, an Administrator for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), on the state of HRSA programs today that support the overall health ecosystem from workforce development to flexibilities within the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. For context, the hearing memo cites the expected workforce shortage of “17,210 primary care physician full-time equivalents (FTE) and a 20 percent decrease of behavioral health workers by 2030“, demonstrating the urgency for continued federal support.
Washington’s Representative McMorris Rodgers, Chair of the House E&C Committee, expressed her support for considering 8 different bills, including the Strengthening Community Care Act of 2023, which reauthorizes the Community Health Center Fund and National Health Service Corps; the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program; and the National Nursing Workforce Center Act of 2023, among others. As Congress gears up to develop its budget for fiscal year 2024, this hearing helped bring to the forefront the need to continue funding programs that strengthen U.S. public healthcare systems.
Read and watch Chair Rodgers’ opening statement here, and read more about the full hearing and proposed legislation here.