Advancing Bipartisan Federal Policies to Strengthen the Health Care Workforce

In the U.S., 160 million people depend on employer-sponsored health coverage, yet many of these people face significant barriers to receiving high-quality and affordable health care.¹ Launched in 2021 by JPMorganChase, Morgan Health is committed to improving the quality, outcomes, and affordability of employer-sponsored health care in the U.S. Morgan Health has invested approximately $217 million of JPMorganChase capital to date into promising health care companies to help drive improvement in health care. The team has also piloted new programs and conducted novel research.² The firm recognizes that policy reforms are also needed to help accelerate innovation within the commercial market and to support employers who want to offer high value coverage to their employees. The health care workforce is key to innovation efforts, which are hampered by dire shortages in primary and behavioral care providers.³ These shortages can contribute to significant gaps in care for Americans, such as long wait times and delayed or foregone treatment.

To help address workforce shortages in primary and behavioral health and to expand access to critical services, JPMorganChase’s Morgan Health and PolicyCenter support the following reforms:

• Advancing Workforce Pell: Pell Grants, which provide need-based grants to low-income undergraduate and certain post-baccalaureate students,⁴ currently may be applied only to programs at least 15 weeks in length. This may prohibit many students and workers from accessing critical financial aid that would allow them to participate in short-term skills training programs to enter or advance in a health care career pathway, such as some programs to become a phlebotomist or Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). The Higher Education Act (HEA) can be modernized to expand Pell Grants to cover high-quality, short-term programs and to include rigorous standards to prevent low-quality programs from benefiting from this expansion.
• Strengthening and Expanding Apprenticeships: Employment in health care is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2033, with about 1.6 million openings per year.^5,6 However, in 2024, the number of apprentices in the health care industry was just over 37,000 individuals.^7,8 Registered Nurse positions alone are projected to account for 194,500 openings each year, on average, over the next decade.⁹ To strengthen and expand health care apprenticeships, the National Apprenticeship Act can be reauthorized to provide support for apprenticeships in “new” industries like health care, and the registration process for employers can be streamlined to address administrative barriers, such as having to re-register the same program in multiple states.
• Reauthorizing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA): WIOA, which focuses on strengthening and improving the nation’s public workforce system, helps workers, job seekers, and youth access education, training, supportive, and employment services and helps employers hire and retain workers.¹⁰ Last reauthorized in 2014, WIOA can be reauthorized to support community and technical colleges that provide critical health care training and to strengthen industry and sector partnerships, which connect employers in an industry with education, training, labor, and community based-organizations to develop strategies to respond to an industry’s workforce needs, such as health care.

“Left unaddressed, provider shortages limit access to care, and ultimately, deteriorate health care outcomes,” said Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health. “Both public and private stakeholders have a role to play in building a stronger, more resilient health care workforce. Empowering providers, like nurses, to practice at the top of their license and prioritizing training and apprenticeships are key opportunities.”

JPMorganChase is committed to helping  address the health care workforce shortage. In addition to supporting relevant policy, as of July 2024, JPMorganChase has committed over $13 million in grants globally to organizations working to advance the health care workforce. These grants have helped support over 4,000 individuals earn credentials, licensure or certifications and helped over 5,000 individuals obtain placement into apprenticeships, full, or part-time employment.

The firm looks forward to continuing to work with policymakers, health care experts, education and workforce experts, and community stakeholders to help address the nation’s health care workforce challenges. To learn more about Morgan Health visit https://www.morganhealth.com/. To read the firm’s education and workforce policy priorities and learn more visit https://www.jpmorganchase.com/impact/careers-and-skills.