Deficit plan would reduce aid to teaching hospitals

New York’s prestigious teaching hospitals could lose more than $1 billion a year as part of President Obama’s plan to reduce the deficit, which the hospitals say will lead to drastic reductions in services. The cuts would reduce the Medicare subsidy for training doctors and for providing intensive medical services like trauma centers and burn units and sophisticated equipment that the teaching hospitals offer. The plan would apply to teaching hospitals nationwide but would have its most profound impact in cities like New York and Boston, where medical schools and their affiliated hospitals have a significant presence. The subsidy, which dates to the 1960s, has helped make New York State the world capital of medical education, training about 16,000 doctors a year, or 14.5% of the nation’s total, more than any other state.