In a response last week to President Bush's proposed health-care plan, AAMC President Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., expressed concern that the proposal could jeopardize the health-care safety net created by teaching hospitals and medical school physicians. While the AAMC supports expanding health coverage to the uninsured, the association opposes the proposal to redirect federal funds for safety-net providers to support state-based health coverage initiatives.

In his State of the Union Address, President Bush proposed a new initiative to help states pay private health insurance premiums for the poor and hard-to-insure, which would be funded through "a complex mix of [health-care provider] subsidies and payments," rather than through "new federal entitlement or new federal spending." For more information, please visit http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/pressrel/2007/070126.htm.