Wyden Reintroduces Legislation to Boost Jobs in Health Care
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today announced he reintroduced legislation that reauthorizes and modernizes the Health Profession Opportunity Grant program to help address health care shortages in Oregon and nationwide and create pathways to high quality, in-demand health care careers.
“Addressing the nation's health care worker shortage means helping struggling families with job opportunities,” said Wyden. "That’s why I’m proud to introduce legislation that would provide job training, child care, transportation and more to help low-income families in Oregon and nationwide begin well-paid careers as health professionals.”
The Pathways to Health Careers Act would help to address health care provider shortages, provide pathway to well-paid, in-demand career opportunities in health care.
Created by the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the Health Profession Opportunity Grant Program stands out among other job training approaches because of the mix of support services, career coaching, job placement, and post-employment training provided as part of the program. The program helps increase the number of qualified health professionals in rural, Tribal, and urban areas in need of more workers. The Health Profession Opportunity Grant Program expired in September 2021. The Pathways to Health Careers Act would reauthorize and modernize the program.
To date, the Health Profession Opportunity Grant Program has served over 60,000 participants in 32 programs across 23 states. The Pathways to Health Careers Act would restart and expand the Health Profession Opportunity Grant Program, providing $425 million to make the Health Profession Opportunity Grant available nationwide from FY2024 through FY2028 and includes set asides for Tribes and U.S. Territories.
Alongside Wyden the legislation was led by U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. The bill was cosponsored by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn. U.S. Representative Danny Davis, D-Ill. led the legislation in the House.
The Pathways to Health Careers Act has been endorsed by Ascend at the Aspen Institute, Ascend at the Aspen Institute, Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions, Center for Law and Social Policy, and others.
A fact sheet is available here.
The text of the bill is here
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