Current Actions

• Stop Student Loan Interest Rate Increases!

  As physicians-in-training, we are among the 20.4 million student affected by the exploding cost of higher education in the United States. More than 7 million of us rely on Stafford loans to pay for school and will be directly affected by interest rate increases set to take effect on July 1, 2012. If Congress does not take action in the coming weeks, undergraduate and professional students will be forced into increasing debt, limiting our education and career choices. Moreover, because of the nature of medical training, these interest rate hikes have a disproportionate impact on future physicians. On July 1, 2012, the following changes will take effect:

  • Subsidized Stafford loans for graduate and professional students will be DISCONTINUED. This means that medical students will only be eligible for unsubsidized Stafford and GRADPlus loans, meaning interest accrues and capitalizes during medical school. 

  • Undergraduate subsidized Stafford loan interest rates will DOUBLE. This means that rates on these loans will increase from 3.4% to 6.8%. 

  To add insult to injury, Republicans in Congress have introduced legislation in the House (S. 2366) and Senate that would defer the undergraduate subsidized Stafford loan interest rate increases by cutting the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a critical piece of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats in the Senate introduced S. 2343, the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Act would have prevented the undergraduate Stafford interest rate increase by closing a corporate tax loophole. Unfortunately, this bill stalled in the Senate last week and would not have addressed the elimination of subsidized Stafford loans for graduate and professional students.

  So what can you do?

  Let your members of Congress know that protecting corporations at the expense of students and prevention is not acceptable!    
• Tell Congress to Protect Women's Healthcare!

  Recognizing the benefit of removing barriers to access to contraception, the Department of Health and Human Services released a rule requiring insurance plans to provide no-cost birth control coverage. Some conservative groups have manufactured an uproar about this, claiming that it impinges on religious freedom to require insurance to offer contraception at no cost - despite the fact that churches and houses of worship may exempt themselves from the requirement. On top of that, many states have had similar requirements for several years without incident and the inclusion of contraceptive coverage in insurance plans has been widely required since the year 2000.

  This rule does not requires anyone to use contraceptives and it does not require employers to endorse them. What it does is allows students at religious universities or employees of religiously-affiliated hospitals to exercise their own individual beliefs without the barrier of cost.

  As the graphic to the right shows (courtesy of Doctors for America), 58% of women use contraception for reasons other than family planning. Allowing employers to impose their religious beliefs on their employees prevents women and physicians from exercising their individual right to make decisions based on medical reasons and their personal beliefs.

  Some members of Congress are now attempting to overrule the administration by introducing bills that would take these decisions out of the hands of women and physicians, and instead let employers choose if women should have access to contraception. Write or call your elected officials today and tell them to protect access to preventive care for women, including no-cost contraception!

• Defend Women's Health!

  
  

  Recognizing the benefit of removing barriers to access to contraception, the Department of Health and Human Services released a rule requiring insurance plans to provide no-cost birth control coverage. Some conservative groups have manufactured an uproar about this, claiming that it impinges on religious freedom to require insurance to offer contraception at no cost - despite the fact that churches and houses of worship may exempt themselves from the requirement. On top of that, many states have had similar requirements for several years without incident and the inclusion of contraceptive coverage in insurance plans has been widely required since the year 2000.

  This rule does not requires anyone to use contraceptives and it does not require employers to endorse them. What it does is allows students at religious universities or employees of religiously-affiliated hospitals to exercise their own individual beliefs without the barrier of cost.

  As the graphic to the right shows (courtesy of Doctors for America), 58% of women use contraception for reasons other than family planning. Allowing employers to impose their religious beliefs on their employees prevents women and physicians from exercising their individual right to make decisions based on medical reasons and their personal beliefs.

  Sign the petition below to stand up for women's health and access to preventive care - don't let a small minority limit access for everyone!

• Tell Secretary Sebelius & President Obama to put Evidence before Politics in Women's Health

  In an act motivated by politics rather than scientific evidence, Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has overruled the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to keep Plan B emergency contraception from being sold over the counter.

  Currently, Plan B is sold behind pharmacy counters and is available without a prescription only for those 17 or older. At issue was whether the current age restrictions on the purchase of Plan B (levonorgestrel) should be lifted in light of new evidence that even the youngest girls of reproductive age were capable of using Plan B safely and effectively. After a ten-month review, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D. stated, "there is adequate and reasonable, well-supported, and science-based evidence that Plan B One-Step is safe and effective and should be approved for nonprescription use for all females of child-bearing potential." Secretary Sebelius's veto of this evidence-based decision is unprecedented.

  As a form of emergency contraception, Plan B is most effective when used within 72 hours of intercourse. Current over-the-counter age restrictions prevent retailers from stocking this form of contraception on the shelves and create barriers to access for women of all ages.

  AMSA believes emergency contraception should be fully accessible to all and condemns Secretary Sebelius's decision to continue to limit access to Plan B. It is deeply disappointing that the Obama Administration has privileged politics over science when it comes to women’s bodies and reproductive freedom.

  Tell Secretary Sebelius and the Obama Administration to act on evidence rather than politics and expand access to Plan B.

• Save Medicare GME Funding!

  Despite the failure of the Supercommittee to come up with a deficit-reduction plan, it is imperative that we, as future physicians, continue to make our voices heard on Capitol Hill. If Congress reduces Medicare Graduate Medical Education (GME) funding, a recent survey of residency programs suggests that there will be significant reductions in the number of residency positions available with some programs indicating that they will be forced to shut down altogether. Such a dramatic reduction in training opportunities will reduce Americans’ access to care at a time when we need it most.
  
  Act now to preserve Medicare GME funding!

• Health Professional Students for Health Access for the 99%

  The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) has long fought for issues affecting the group of people that has now become known as the 99% - our neighbors, our colleagues, our patients, our families, the lucky and the less fortunate, everyone who makes up the patchwork quilt of the United States. Occupy Wall Street and the coinciding solidarity Occupations around the country and the world have brought popularity to the idea we must refocus our priorities away from the 1% of the population that hold almost a quarter of our nation's wealth and instead emphasize providing fair and equitable resources to the rest of us - whether through health care, education, access to food, housing, or any other of the myriad fundamental rights that are out of reach of so many. That our priority should be the 99%.  
  
  AMSA lends its voice in solidarity with the Occupy Movement in pursuit of equitable policies for the 99%. We ask you to contribute your voice as well by signing the petition below. Additionally, we encourage you to share any stories you might have about your experiences with the 99% - whether it's a personal story, a story about your friends or family, or based on a patient encounter. Lastly, if you'd like us to connect you with other health professional students in your area that have also expressed an interest in joining the movement, mark the appropriate box.

• Preserve Federally Subsidized Student Loans

  On the heels of President Obama’s announcement of a Student Debt relief program, it is a critical time to tell our elected officials to stand in support of federal programs that empower millions of Americans to pursue a secondary education. According to data from the Department of Education, 9,020,465 Americans benefited from federally subsidized student loan programs during the last academic year. Unfortunately, even now, direct federal subsidies in the form of Pell Grants are covering a smaller portion of college tuition than they did 25 years ago. One study released last year showed that tuition has been increasing as federal aid has fallen. Without subsidized federal loans and grants, students are pushed into the arms of private lenders, whose rates & terms tend to be far more suffocating. We need our representatives in Washington to follow President Obama's lead and strengthen federal support for secondary education.

  Take 30 seconds to tell your legislators to preserve this important funding!

• Help end ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage funding!
  Congress continues to provide $50 million a year to ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that fail to provide young people with the information they need to make informed decisions about their health. These programs have been shown to have no effect on teen behavior, while failing to teach teens how to prevent unplanned pregnancy and STIs and ignoring the health needs of LGBT teens. 

  
  

  Join us in calling on Congress to eliminate wasteful spending on programs that have been proven to be ineffective and are harmful to the health of our nation's youth.
• Encourage your congressman to join the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus

  AIDS remains one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time. An estimated 33.4 million people live with HIV/AIDS and more than 25 million people have died since 1981. Worldwide, an estimated 2.6 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2009, and in the United States, someone is newly infected with HIV every 9.5 minutes.

  
  Despite the severity of the challenge, the unprecedented global response to AIDS has passed important milestones, dramatically expanding access to prevention, care, and treatment.  Thanks to bipartisan efforts in Congress, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) have reduced the burden of HIV and AIDS in numerous countries and have put us on track to eliminating pediatric AIDS. Within the United States, through initiatives like the Ryan White CARE Act and the development of a National HIV/AIDS Strategy, we are poised to put HIV and AIDS on the long term road to elimination.

  
  The Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus (formerly the Congressional Task Force on International HIV/AIDS) was created to examine methods by which the United States can maintain global leadership in the response to the epidemic.

  
  In the 112th Congress, the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus will explore five thematic areas:

  • Implementation of the US National HIV/AIDS Strategy
  • Financing for Bilateral and Multilateral HIV/AIDS programs
  • The state of HIV/AIDS research
  • The role of Faith-Based Organizations
  • The 2012 International AIDS Conference to be held in Washington, D.C.

  Members of the Caucus will receive advance notification of HIV/AIDS related activities and developments, including Member roundtables, staff roundtables, briefings and events.