Statement by the President Upon Establishing the National Advisory Commission on Health Manpower.
THE UNITED STATES is facing a critical shortage of manpower in carrying out its commitment to improve health care for our citizens.
On July 1, more than 19 million Americans will be eligible for health services under Medicare. We expect a heavy drain on our limited resources for those services.
Additional manpower will be needed for expanded programs of maternal and child health care, service to crippled or retarded children, and for mental patients.
New health services for migratory workers, new attacks on heart disease, cancer, and stroke, and additional new hospitals and health facilities will require trained staffs.
Therefore, I am appointing today a National Advisory Commission on Health Manpower, to be headed by J. Irwin Miller, chairman, Cummins Engine Co., Inc., Columbus, Ind. Its members include distinguished leaders from the health professions, the universities, and other sectors of public and private life.
I have asked the Commission to recommend bold, imaginative ways to:
--improve the utilization of health manpower in Government agencies and in private life; and
--speed up the education of doctors and other highly trained health personnel without sacrificing the highest quality of learning.
I hope to receive periodic advice from the Commission before it submits its final report next year.
In the meanwhile, I have directed the Federal Government to act vigorously to deal with problems in this area. I have requested Secretary McNamara and Secretary Gardner, together with Chairman Macy of the Civil Service Commission, and Administrator Driver of the Veterans Administration to conduct a joint effort to improve the utilization of health manpower by Federal agencies. I have also requested Secretary Wirtz, in consultation with others, to explore the feasibility of establishing a national roster of draft-eligible doctors. Such a study should be helpful to the Commission in making recommendations to me.
I strongly believe that these efforts by this new Commission and by the Government will bring real advances in our progress toward our national goal: adequate and economical health care for every citizen.
Note: On the same day the President signed Executive Order 11279 "Establishing the President's Committee on Health Manpower and the National Advisory Commission on Health Manpower" (2 Weekly Comp. Pres. Docs., p. 621; 31 F.R. 6947; 3 CFR, 1966 Comp., p. 110).
The members of the President's Committee, all of them Government officials, are listed in section 1 of the order. The members of the National Advisory Commission as announced by the White House Press Office follow: J. Irwin Miller, chairman of the board, Cummins Engine Co., Inc., Columbus, Ind., chairman; Dr. Russell Nelson, president, Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Baltimore, Md.; Dr. Robert Ebert, dean, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass.; Dr. Alonzo Yerby, commissioner of hospitals, New York, N.Y.; Dr. James Cain, physician and consultant, Internal Medicine Section, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; Dr. Dwight Wilbur, specialist in internal medicine, San Francisco, Calif.; Quigg Newton, president, Commonwealth Fund, New York, N.Y.; Dr. Joseph Volker, vice president for health affairs, University of Alabama, University, Ala.; Albert Dent, president, Dillard University, New Orleans, La.; Kermit Gordon, vice president, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.; Joseph Wilson, president, Xerox Corp., New York, N.Y.; Thomas Vail, publisher, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. Mary Bunting, president, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass.; Joseph Beirne, president, Communications Workers of America and vice president, AFL-CIO, Chevy Chase, Md.; Charles Odegaard, president, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.
The statement was released at San Antonio, Texas.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Establishing the National Advisory Commission on Health Manpower. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239143