Bill Description: House Bill 368 expands the number of medical school seats sponsored by the state of Idaho and establishes a working group to develop a plan to revise Idaho’s medical education partnerships.
Rating: -1
Analyst Note: House Bill 368 is a rewrite of House Bill 176, which would have abolished Idaho's relationship with the WWAMI medical education program, and directed the state to seek other partnerships in the mountain time zone. By contrast, House Bill 368 would reduce the number of Idaho-sponsored slots at WWAMI, relocate them to another medical school, and expand the overall number of slots available to Idaho students.
WWAMI is an acronym for the University of Washington School of Medicine’s interstate partnership with Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho — all states without a medical school — to offer undergraduate medical education.
Does it create, expand, or enlarge any agency, board, program, function, or activity of government? Conversely, does it eliminate or curtail the size or scope of government?
House Bill 368 directs the State Board of Education to appoint a working group to develop a plan for medical education in Idaho. This does not expand the scope of the State Board of Education or its ability to regulate or conduct business. It also does not increase costs beyond minor incidentals since these boards are typically volunteer committees.
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Does it transfer a function of the private sector to the government? Examples include government ownership or control of any providers of goods or services such as the land board’s purchase of a self-storage facility, mandatory emissions testing, or pre-kindergarten. Conversely, does it eliminate a function of government or return a function of government to the private sector?
This legislation does not transfer a function of the private sector to the government, nor does it do the opposite. WWAMI is a longstanding program and ending it in favor of another state-sponsored medical education program does not result in a net loss to the role of the private sector in this case.
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Does it increase government spending (for objectionable purposes) or debt? Conversely, does it decrease government spending or debt?
According to the fiscal note, this legislation increases government spending by $512,400 to subsidize the increased number of seats at medical school. The bill would reduce the number of seats housed in the WWAMI program by 10. It also adds 10 seats per year for the next three years — resulting in a net increase of 20 state-sponsored seats.
The point of this additional spending is to address the physician shortage by encouraging medical students to come, and hopefully stay, in Idaho. But this spending is objectionable, because the problem is not that we do not have enough doctors graduating medical school, but too few residency slots available for doctors to take in the Gem State. Because the bottleneck is not at medical school, but in the licensure process thereafter, it is unlikely this additional funding would resolve Idaho’s physician shortage. More government subsidies aren’t the answer.
(-1)
