Hospitals and medical organizations are urging Congress to boost support for the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program, which trains thousands of general pediatricians and specialists each year.
In late May, national groups representing hospitals and physicians — including the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association — sent a letter to members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, calling for $778 million in funding for the CHGME program.
In 2025, Congress provided $390 million to support the program. To ensure adequate access to pediatric care and address the nation’s youth mental health crisis, healthcare groups say more funding is needed to support the program in 2026. Over the years, the program has enabled children’s hospitals to expand residency training for general pediatricians and specialists, including psychiatrists and surgeons.
The program supports 1% of U.S. hospitals, though it trains the majority of the country’s pediatric specialists.
“Increasing support for the pediatric workforce is even more important as we face the growing challenges of the children’s mental health crisis, as well as future respiratory virus surges that will increasingly impact our pediatric health care workforce,” the groups wrote in the letter.
“CHGME supports the training of the front-line providers who care for our children and youth during these emergencies. CHGME plays a vital role in combatting the worsening crisis in child and adolescent mental health, by funding the training of more than half of the developmental-behavioral pediatricians and over 40% of child and adolescent psychiatrists. We cannot continue to fall behind — we must protect children’s access to care.”
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