by INFORUM
Tobacco control proponents speak up
January 31, 2011 at 6:00 pm in INFORUM
Oppose dismantling of their program to pay for UND med school expansion
BISMARCK Proponents of North Dakota’s tobacco control program found a frosty reception Monday when they came to the Capitol to oppose the dismantling of their program to pay for another program at the University of North Dakota to increase the number of health care workers in the state. Continue Reading&
“House Bill 1353 would end the roughly $18.6 million-a-biennium tobacco control program – not just cut funding, but end the program and the agency that runs it – and use the money to expand UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences, which would cost $34.7 million in the initial biennium.”
“Many hospitals and doctors say this is needed because the state faces a major shortage of health care workers even as the state’s aging population requires more care.”
UND doesn’t need to expand (whatever this means) in order to increase the number of health care workers in North Dakota. Instead, the money should be used to create incentives for doctors and nurses to work in North Dakota. For example, the money could be used to pay student loan debt for so many years of service. Not only should the money be used for doctors and nurses, it should be used to pull in mental health professionals. God knows, this state needs them.
The last thing we need is more money being dumped into higher education with no guarantee that graduates will stay in ND.
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I was in the audience yesterday. UND has no way to guarantee that the docs they train stay in ND and very few do. They also have no way to fund their program once the tabacco money runs out in 2017. The tabacco cessation programs, though only in place 18 months, are showing great progress. The money should be used as voters intended, and the settlement itself intended. Also, Chairman Kelsh and Rep Heller were openly rude to the people representing the opposition to this bill–who were only given HALF the time to testify that those advocating got. It was truly disgusting and if one looked into it they would likely find they are both receiving money from big tabacco!!!
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