On March 1, sequestration went into effect, causing automatic across-the-board cuts to many programs vital to medical schools and teaching hospitals, including funding for medical research and support for graduate medical education. The AAMC released a press statement pointing out the threats posed by sequestration to America’s patients and its communities.
The next two weeks remain critical if we are to convince Congress to pass legislation to mitigate the impact of these cuts. It is imperative that medical schools and teaching hospitals explain the impact of these cuts on their communities to their elected officials and to the media.
The AAMC continues to run the attached ads in Washington, D.C., publications cobranded with numerous patient advocacy and physician specialty groups. We encourage you to run similar ads in your local papers, including the AAMC’s logo, your institution’s logo, and any other local groups you can recruit to sign-on. Contact Susan Beach, Senior Director, Strategic Communications, at sbeach@aamc.org for an ad template.
The press is looking for stories on the local impact of sequestration, and we strongly suggest you submit an op-ed to your local newspaper pointing out the devastating impact of sequestration on the patients you treat and the communities you serve. Resources, including a draft op-ed and key points, on sequestration are attached and are available on the AAMC’s Web site (“Impact of Budget Cuts on America’s Health”). Please also find attached op-eds recently published in the Columbus Dispatch and Milwaukee Sentinel.
Institutions also should look at their own institutional data and calculate a 2.0 percent reduction in total Medicare payments and a 5.0 percent reduction in federal grants and make sure they communicate to the public and policymakers the impact these cuts will have on services delivered, research conducted, and jobs lost. We urge you to include an estimate of the jobs impact from the sequestration cuts in your op-ed. The AAMC estimates that each $1 million in NIH losses would equal 18 jobs lost and each $1 million in Medicare cuts would equal 25 jobs lost. Please feel free to contact Dave Moore, Senior Director, Government Relations, at dbmoore@aamc.org, or Len Marquez, Director, Government Relations, at lmarquez@aamc.org with any questions regarding the calculations.
The AAMC Web page contains a link that will allow you to create a customized, pre-drafted e-mail message to the president, vice president, and Congress describing the consequences of the sequester on NIH funding and the nation’s health. Please share this link (http://capwiz.com/aamc/home/) with your faculty, students, and alumni.
Finally, the White House has posted a list of reports outlining the impact of sequestration on a state-by-state basis: http://www.whitehouse.gov/
If you need additional information, feel free to contact Susan Beach at sbeach@aamc.org, Dave Moore at dbmoore@aamc.org, or Len Marquez at lmarquez@aamc.org.
Milwaukee Sentinel Op-Ed