Summary of the President's Remarks at a Meeting With the National Advisory Commission on Health Manpower.
THIS is health week for me. On Monday I met with my health strategy council--Secretary Gardner, the Surgeon General, the Directors of the National Institutes of Health--to discuss how we can better apply research knowledge to the prevention and cure of disease. Yesterday, I held a meeting with Secretary Gardner and other officials to review the status of hospital facilities for Medicare patients. Today, I'm pleased to meet with you as you begin your work.
All the health issues we discussed earlier in the week are of urgent concern. But none of them is more important than the one with which you will be dealing in the next few months: health manpower.
The national demand for health manpower today exceeds the supply--and this may be the case for several years. This fact gives your job a special importance.
As you begin your work, I hope you will concentrate on making practical recommendations about how the Nation can deal with this problem.
First, I need your advice about the Federal Government's use of its health manpower:
--Are we setting an example for the Nation in the efficient use of health man-power?
--Should we establish new forms of health manpower utilization?
Second, we need answers to these same questions as they apply to non-Federal health manpower.
Third, we need your advice on how to develop additional health manpower--not only high-level specialists, but technicians and allied health professionals.
We have important commitments today in the health field, not only at home but around the world. The conflict in Vietnam places additional burdens on our health manpower resources. And in 2 days we launch Medicare--the most significant health venture enacted by Congress in this era.
All of these activities mean one thing: We must do more with the resources we have.
As you begin your work, I offer you my support--and I wish you well. Millions of Americans depend on your deliberations and your accomplishments.
Note: The President met with members of the Commission shortly before 11 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White House following which the Press Office made public this summary of his remarks.
For the President's statement following his meeting with the health strategy council on Monday, June 27, 1966, see Item 293.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Summary of the President's Remarks at a Meeting With 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/238599
