Aid to Medical Schools

When Harry Truman failed to get his all embracing National Health Plan through Congress last July, he promised that he would keep on fighting, until he had passed it, if necessary making the opposition digest it in fragments. The American Medical Association thinks that H.R. 5910, a bill to give financial aid to medical schools and set up a medical scholarship program, is the first such morsel, guised as an "emergency" aid to medical education.

The nucleus of the present bill is Title 1 of the earlier omnibus health plan but the substance is a full-scale compromise with the AMA's position. The AMA disliked the scholarship program, the administration changed the bill to give scholarships only after the supply of self-sufficient medical school applicants is exhausted; the AMA feared that the stipend paid to medical schools for students over and above their average enrollment would encourage "wildeat" schools, the administration cut that stipend to one-third of its original size. But the medical group, fearing the bull too much to eat the beef, refuses to accept the bill on the grounds of political interference and the possibility of an over-population of physicians.

The nation's medical schools need federal aid sorely. The average loss per year on a medical student is in the neighborhood of 1500 dollars. Tuition's have been raised to a maximum, high taxes have cut out large gifts--what gifts medicine does get are, for the most part, specially directed; the only schools that can keep from being in the red are those receiving some tax support. H.R. 5940 offers medical schools $500 per student per year for five years plus an additional $500 for students over the average past enrollment. For the purchase of new equipment and limited expansion, the bill also provides the Surgeon General with a fund to distribute, as he sees fit, to the various schools. As the Association of American Medical Schools points out, this aid will barely maintain medical standards, let alone allow enlarging of the student body.

In the matter of an over-population of physicians, the AMA's criticism has somewhat better foundation. The present number of physicians, if distributed properly, could very easily supply the nation's medical needs. But, as the bill is written now, the scholarship plan will never stimulate medical enrollment; and the stipend paid schools for additional students can increase the body of physicians only in proportion to the population growth. Without this financial aid to the schools, the AMA can expect a decrease in quality if not in numbers of the profession whose exclusiveness it so jealously guards.

The AMA is very much afraid of socialized medicine; it fears any successful relations between the government and the profession. Yet, in these days when taxes eat up the interest on endowments, the profession must look to the government for financial support. The compromise proposed by the government is a sound one. The AMA's fear merely reflects a pre-occupation with its own security as a powerful organization rather than a genuine concern for the plight of the nation's medical schools.