Central PA Medicine - Spring 2017 - 29

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A

t the Capitol Hill entrance, we
emptied the contents of our
white coat pockets into the security bins and slowly stepped
through the metal detectors. One member
of our group had a particularly difficult time
with an incidence involving a pen light, a
metal detector wand, and a pat-down. As
medical students, we are used to listening
to those in charge and making sure to stay
out of the way, so it was second nature
to obediently follow the security officers'
demands. Eventually, we made it through
the congressional security team and were
off to advocate to our Pennsylvania state
representatives on behalf of the American
Medical Association (AMA).

The AMA holds an annual conference
for medical students in Washington, DC
to teach lobbying techniques and increase
awareness of the legislative issues affecting
medicine. Our excitement of being at the
conference was increased by the fact that
our visit coincided with the proposal of the
American Health Care Act. The historical
significance of this day was not lost on the
group as we made our way to Representative
Charlie Dent's office. There have only been
about four major healthcare policy reform
proposals in the history of our country:
Johnson's rollout of Medicare and Medicaid
in 1965, the proposal and failure of First
Lady Hillary Clinton's American Health
Security Act of 1993, former President
Obama's Affordable Care Act, and the
newly proposed American Health Care Act
(AHCA) by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
On this day, standing in our nation's Capitol,
this group of Penn State medical students
would have a chance to try and impact the
newest healthcare reform proposal.

Residency spots are funded through script of facts and figures and instead shared
Medicare. Therefore, any changes made a heartfelt story of a patient we had seen at a
to Medicare will affect residency funding, free clinic in Harrisburg. We talked about the
and with the growing physician shortage difficulties that this person had in accessing
and unmatched residency rate, this policy care and that he was ultimately served by
will thereby directly impact the health- residents. We were there advocating, not as
care system. Residents often see the most medical students, but instead as the voices
Medicaid patients in a practice setting and of our patients. Ultimately, we were there
preforms more pro bono clinical work than to tell their stories.
any other level of medical professionals.
Further, there is a growing rate of medical
As future doctors, it is not only our
students who go unmatched after medical responsibility to fight for our own interests,
school, who are now stuck with massive but to include our patients in the fight.
amounts of debt. Because of this trend, the Many people want to amend healthcare
appeal and therefore the number of people funding because they are unaware of what
entering the medical profession as primary this funding does. As future doctors, we
care physicians is decreasing. Less doctors have the power to inform our patients, not
means that patients' wait times increase, to push our own agendas, but to create a
appointments are more difficult to get, population of informed citizens. I believe
and doctors and residents are over-worked. that if more people knew about the function
Despite the direct impact that government of Medicaid and Medicare, they would have
funding of residency placement has on a better understanding of its importance. As
patients, the public has little awareness medical students, we are just beginning our
of this important issue and, therefore, the journey in the medical system, and while it
only people advocating to protect graduate is a complicated system that is going through
medical education funding are physicians, many changes, it is exciting to realize that
residents, and medical students.
we have the power to exact the change we
hope to see.
We walked out of the capitol building,
our white coats flapping at our waists, and
felt the power that our words had on the
representatives. During the meeting, we
had decided to deviate from the rehearsed

We spent the morning preparing the
talking points for our meeting with representatives Charlie Dent and Patrick Meehan. In
addition to voicing our concerns regarding
patient access to healthcare, the same concerns echoed by the AMA, we also planned
to strongly advocate for expanding graduate
medical education funding, commonly
known as residency placement spots.

Central PA Medicine Spring 2017 29
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