As president of the Maine Osteopathic Association and a practicing emergency physician, I am writing to implore the Maine Legislature to prevent cuts in funding to the Doctors for Maine’s Future Scholarship Program.

As Maine and the nation face a critical shortage of primary care physicians, it is imperative that we not be shortsighted. The program provides necessary financial assistance for Maine students who want to train and eventually deliver health care in the state. It takes at least seven years from the first day of medical school until completion of residency training. From a long-term perspective, cutting funding does not make any sense, given this scholarship program is matched dollar for dollar with private philanthropy, thus leveraging the state’s modest investment.

Over the past three decades, the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine has developed a blueprint for educating and training primary care physicians which has proven highly successful.

As the No. 1 provider of physicians for our state, graduates of UNECOM account for greater than 15 percent of the primary care work force and nearly 27 percent of those providing rural medical care. In other words, one of every four physicians in rural Maine is a D.O. who trained here in our state, at Maine’s medical school.

Indeed, it is the many citizens in rural and under-served areas who will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this investment in the future of primary care for Maine.

Joel Kase, Lewiston