Health reform bill could pay for veterinary school
by Pets
People are making a big show about how much is contained in the massive health care reform bill now before the U.S. Senate after passage by the House last weekend.
If one takes the time, and it takes a lot of time, to read through this document there are some interesting tidbits.
How about loans for veterinary students ?
On page 1255 of the bill, veterinary students could be eligible for federal grant funding, including scholarships and loan forgiveness. There is $283 million in spending authorized under these sections.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) argued on the floor of the House last week for the provision. She asked of her Republican colleagues, “Have you ever heard of swine flu? Have you ever heard of food safety? Have you ever heard that 70-percent of all the antibiotics produced in the United States are given to cattle and poultry even though they are not ill? Swine flu should make them worry a little bit, don’t you think?”
I am trying to find the motivation in this and my stretch is perhaps this is a backward way for the agriculture industry to get more support from the federal government.
-Or-
There are a declining number of large animal veterinarians in this country, with more new graduates going into small animal practice, and this funding support will encourage more vets to enter the farm field.
-Or-
If there are more veterinarians then pet care costs will go down, more people could afford to care for pets, more people would get pets and the health benefits of pet ownership have been well documented.
I’ll stick with this last motivation.
Sue McGuire 
No wonder this thing is stalling so hard…tons of pointless spending. BTW, Ms. Slaughter (nice name to have when you’re fighting for animal doctors), food safety has nothing to do with veterinarians. The most they would be able to do would be diagnosing an illness that could possibly lead to a foodbourne disease.
by sean
Sue:
There’s a lot in the news about declawing of cats these days and cities banning it. Maybe that would be worth a write-up on your blog so people could discuss it? Great job with the blog. Very interesting things on here.
by reader
That’s right and it is deserving of a separate blog on this. (I promise it is coming.)
In a nutshell, veterinarians managed to get legislation approved that goes into effect in California in 2010.
Essentially, the new law would forbid local governments from passing measures banning the declawing of cats.
The end result is local governments are scrambling right now to get bans on declawing on the books before the end of the year.
by Pets
Lots of of folks talk about this matter but you said some true words!!
by artingteema
The U.S. is in a world of trouble at the moment, where we are facing a government take over. The government needs to stop spending in the private sector, stop telling the people what they cannot do and stop all of this nonsense. I am very much against the type of thinking that is fueling this administration, but i would like to point out that the above article has some intelligence. I have been a horse girl all of my life and have now decided that it is my life’s goal to become a rural veterinarian. The problem is that rural vets do not make a lot of money for doctors who start out there careers over one hundred thousand dollars in debt. Rural vets are not out there to cheat the system or make a lot of money, they just want to help their large friends and work hard. Without rural vets the U.S. food supply would be in disaster. And by the way, rural vets not only help sick animals but also help new life, treat for diseases, do research in labs, come up with new vaccines, protect you when you eat bacon, steak and eyes and when you drink milk. We need to encourage more animal lovers to this field.
by Murf
FYI as a student trying to find funds for vet school this bill passing would be a miracle.. now other parts of it are questionable but there are so many programs out there to help pay for people to become doctors and none to help people become vets. No wonder the number is declining you have to pay ridiculously to attend vet school so the only people who can reasonably become vets are the kids who live off mommy and daddy’s trust fund unless they want to graduate in debt up to their eyes. So i think that this legislation isnt hurting anyone. PLus there are bigger problems than money allocated for future vets.
by Lacee