Lawmakers support use of tobacco fund for medical education study

BOISE – Lawmakers want to use money from a billion-dollar, nationwide tobacco settlement to study starting a degree-granting medical education program in Idaho.

Idaho currently gets some $24 million annually from the 1998 settlement with the nation’s five largest tobacco companies. The money goes into an account called the Millennium Fund, and lawmakers allocate 5 percent each year to spend on smoking prevention and related health programs.

This year, the committee that shepherds the fund recommended spending a total of $2.5 million on eight programs. That includes $300,000 on the study that’s been pushed by Idaho State University President Arthur Vailas since his arrival at the Pocatello-based school last year. Idaho State is the university with the state’s health teaching mission.

According to the plan, the state Board of Education would hire an outside consulting firm to analyze the cost, location, challenges and other specifics of a program to grant medical degrees in Idaho.

Now that the committee overseeing the Millennium Fund has signed off on the request, it must pass the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, followed by the full House and Senate.

According to 2005 figures from the American Medical Association, Idaho ranks 49th in the nation in physicians per capita. The doctor shortage is exacerbated by Idaho’s rapid population rise: The state had the third-fastest growth in the country in 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And 44 percent of Idaho’s doctors are 50 years or older.

Other recommendations of the Millennium Fund Committee on Wednesday included spending $82,100 on anti-tobacco advertising by the American Lung Association, $500,000 on similar efforts by Idaho’s public health districts and $500,000 on programs at the state Department of Health and Welfare.

Idaho Drug Free Youth, a private outfit that aims to help high school and middle school students stay off controlled substances and tobacco, could receive $147,000, if the Legislature backs the committee’s recommendation.