A new bill introduced in the California Senate by Senator Melissa Hurtado would grow the medical provider pool in rural regions where people have less access to health insurance by formalizing a pre-med pathway from the California Community Colleges system to medical schools. Reporter Cassidy Taylor has the details…
SB-40 would establish four “Regional Hubs of Health Care Opportunity” that would provide regional students of color with support such as internships, scholarships and opportunities to shadow medical professionals – all within poorer, rural regions where medical help is needed the most. The bill would create the California Medicine Scholars Program, a 5-year pilot program commencing January 1, 2023, as well as require the pilot program to establish a regional pipeline program for community college students to pursue premedical training and enter medical school. The bill is an effort to address the shortage of primary care physicians in California and the widening disparities in access to care in vulnerable and underserved communities, including building a comprehensive statewide approach to increasing the number and representation of minority primary care physicians in the state. To learn more about SB-40, visit the link below.
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB40
