BOISE, Idaho (KIFI)—The Idaho House has passed a bill that will add more seats to train medical doctors.
House Bill 368 will expand medical education seats to other programs besides the University of Washington’s WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) medical education program.
Currently, Idaho pays for 40 undergraduate medical seats with WWAMI and 10 seats with the University of Utah for a total of 50 seats.
While introducing the bill on the House floor Thursday afternoon, bill sponsor Rep. Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello, said there is a severe physician crisis in Idaho and something needs to be done.
He told legislators this bill will add 10 seats for the next academic year, 2026-2027.
“It adds ten seats that are not WWAMI seats. So we’re a net increase of ten next year,” said Manwaring. “And then the following year in year two, this adds another ten seats, and it takes ten away from WWAMI. It shifts ten away. So the appropriation on the fiscal note is that’s a net increase of zero on that year or two.”
“And then in year three, it adds another ten seats that are not in WWAMI. So what we get to is a net increase in Idaho of 20 undergraduate medical education seats than we have today,” Manwaring continued. “So we’re trying to increase and grow our capacity and do something on the front end just to address this severe physician crisis.”
“We are in a place with this legislation where we’re adding seats, and we’re putting Idaho, Idaho in a position where we’re going to be more in control of the process. We’re diversifying how we spend and appropriate our Idaho state dollars and undergraduate medical education,” Manwaring said.
Manwaring said the state has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the WWAMI and the University of Utah programs.
The bill passed the House with a 46 to 21 vote. It now heads to the Idaho Senate.
House Bill 176, which also deals with the WWAMI expansion, was sent back to committee.
