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New Bill Would Send Yuma County Much Needed State Medical Funding

Published: Wednesday, March 27, 2019 - 12:42pm
Updated: Wednesday, March 27, 2019 - 2:13pm
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There is an ongoing physician shortage in this country — and it's hitting rural areas especially hard.

Arizona ranks near the bottom of the country in primary care physicians. And, in Yuma County, 100 percent of residents live in a federally-designated primary care shortage area.

That’s why health care leaders there are celebrating a bill that would appropriate some much-needed money to Yuma to address the shortage. Senate Bill 1354 has nearly passed through both Houses, and puts millions toward graduate medical education programs, the University of Arizona’s Medical School and medical student loan repayments across the state.

Yuma will be getting a good chunk of that money, and The Show talked more about that with Dr. Robert Trenschel, the president of the Yuma Regional Medical Center.

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