AR SCR14

The United States faces a projected shortage of up to 139,000 physicians by 2033 due to a growing and aging population, with Arkansas ranked 47th nationally for active physicians per 100,000 population as of 2019.

Arkansas will need approximately 500 additional primary care physicians and increased specialists in cancer, cardiology, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics by 2030, despite medical schools training more graduates than available residency positions.

Medicare-supported residency positions have been capped since 1997, creating an unequal distribution of federally supported residency slots that disproportionately affects rural and growing states like Arkansas.

Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, providing 1,000 new Medicare-supported graduate medical education residency slots in December 2020, the first increase in nearly 25 years.

The resolution urges Congress to pass the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2021, which would provide 14,000 new Medicare graduate medical education slots over 7 years while prioritizing rural teaching hospitals and areas with health professional shortages.