MU School of Medicine’s proposition to expand and enroll an additional 32 students per year could possibly hinge on the increase of 73 cents to a cigarette tax that will appear on the November ballot.
According to Michael Muin, the senior information specialist for the School of Medicine, if Missouri voters approve the cigarette tax, the resulting revenue could be invested in increasing medical student enrollment at MU. In conjunction with additional enrollment, the funding could create an MU School of Medicine clinical campus in partnership with CoxHealth and Mercy health systems in Springfield, Mo.
The proposition put forth and presented by the MU School of Medicine would call for investments to help add more faculty and facilities.
“An approximately $30 million medical education building would need to be constructed in Columbia,” Muin said. “And an additional $3 million would be needed for facilities in Springfield. MU’s medical school would also require approximately $10 million in additional annual operating funding to increase medical student enrollment and create the clinical campus in Springfield.”
In addition to increasing medical education, the expansion plan proposed would contribute more than $390 million every year to Missouri’s economy and create 3,500 new jobs, according to the MU School of Medicine’s website.
Linda Headrick, associate dean for education at the School of Medicine, said the acceptance of additional students could help fix the “probable physician shortage” the U.S. currently faces, according to [a KOMU article](http://www.komu.com/news/mu-cigarette-tax-absolutely-essential-to-med-school-expansion/).
The MU School of Medicine’s website also states that more than 90 percent of Missouri’s counties lack sufficient access to health care professionals and the state itself is among the top 20 in the U.S. where people older than 65 require extra medical care as they grow older.
Headrick also told KOMU that the School of Medicine is “stuffed to the rafters.” Each of the past two years, MU received more than 1,500 applicants, but the school is only equipped to accept 96 new students every year. The clinical campus would allow MU to accept 128 students annually, with 32 students from each class finishing the final two years of their education in Springfield.
If the cigarette tax, known also as Proposition B, passes this November, MU’s first expanded medical student class could be enrolled within three years after the funding becomes available.
If voters decide not to pass the tax, MU will not give up on its proposal.
“MU will continue to pursue public funding through the legislative process, as well as philanthropy to expand its medical student enrollment and create a clinical campus in Springfield,” Muin said.
