Health policy discussions often involve topics, such as the need to provide coverage for individuals who either lack adequate health insurance or who have none at all, along with a steady escalation in health care costs. Generally, the health workforce does not attract as much attention. An implicit assumption seems to be that not only are their sufficient numbers of clinicians, educators, researchers, and students wanting to enter the health care realm, but also that there is no difficulty retaining them afterwards. Unfortunately, that ideal state fails to exist. An aging population with a growing number of patients with multiple co-morbidities acting in concert with portions of the health workforce that is moving just as rapidly into old age brackets and also is at risk of diminishing in size because of deaths and retirements. These conditions provide a rationale for the necessity of having policymakers be on the alert to conditions that influence this component of the health care spectrum.
A positive sign in that direction is some legislation pending on Capitol Hill. H.R. 3320, the Allied Health Workforce Diversity Act of 2021, was introduced in the House of Representatives on May 18, 2021. This measure allows the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide grants to accredited education programs to increase diversity in the physical therapy, occupational therapy, respiratory therapy, audiology, and speech-language pathology professions. Grants may be used to provide scholarships or to support recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented groups. Two days later, this legislation was referred to the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Next, on November 4, following subcommittee consideration at a mark-up session, the bill was forwarded to the full committee by voice vote where on November 17, the full committee voted to advance the bill. A related bill, S. 1679, was introduced in the Senate on May 18 and referred to the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee where it currently sits awaiting further action.
In the event the proposed legislation reaches approval in both the House and the Senate, and is signed into law by President Biden, scholarships or stipends would be provided for: completion of an accelerated degree program; completion of an associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree program; and entry by a diploma or associate’s degree practitioner into a bridge or degree completion program. Another provision would furnish assistance for completion of prerequisite courses or other preparation necessary for acceptance for enrollment in the eligible entity; and carry out activities to increase the retention of students in one or more programs in the professions of physical therapy, occupational therapy, respiratory therapy, audiology, and speech-language pathology.
Meanwhile, President Biden signed into law on November 15 the one trillion dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684). The bill was approved by the House on a vote of 228-206, which included 13 Republicans. The Senate approved this legislation in August, with 19 Republicans voting to approve it. The next major legislation on the agenda involves roughly $2 trillion for health care, education and climate-change in what is called the “Build Back Better” reconciliation package. Legislators are waiting for an official Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimate of the bill (H.R. 5376). The CBO is releasing estimates for individual titles of bills as they are completed.