Dr. Bains Says “If the UC Won’t Build It, We’ll Build Our Own Damn Medical School”

• Adam Capper
• (916) 319-2035
• [email protected]

(Bakersfield, CA) February 10, 2026 - Highlighting a crisis that has persisted for half a century, Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains (D-Delano) today announced the Kern County Grow Our Own Doctors (GOOD) Act. The legislation gives the University of California (UC) an ultimatum to address the severe physician shortage in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. Underthe bill, if the UC does not establish a medical school in Kern County by next year, the authority to do so will be granted to California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) and the Kern Community College District (KCCD).

Current state law grants the UC a monopoly on public medical education, effectively handcuffing localinstitutions from solving the crisis. The California Master Plan for Higher Education, signed into law in 1960, explicitly limits the authority to award doctoral degrees in medicine to the UCsystem, legally preventing the CSU and Community Colleges from training doctors. This archaic restriction placesthe 50-year physician shortage squarely at the feet of the UC, which has a long history of opposing projects in the Central Valley. The Kern County GOOD Act would remove this barrier, granting local leaders the authority to act where the UC has failed.

"Governor Jerry Brown once said that if the federal government wouldn't do it, California would 'launch its owndamn satellite,' said Dr. Bains. "That's the spirit we need in Kern County. If the UC won't build the medical school we've needed for fifty years, we will build our own damn medical school."

The federal government first designated a doctor shortage in Kern County on March 5, 1978, and it has persistedever since. Despite being one of the fastest-growing regions in California, the Valley remains one of the poorest,with the worst access to healthcare in the state. The Valley has only 157 MDs per 100,000 people, compared to 411 in the Bay Area. There are fewer than 45 primary care physicians per 100,000 people in the Valley, while the state average is 156.

The situation is expected to worsen as the number of medical students from rural communities has seen steepdeclines since 2002. Currently, students from rural backgrounds make up less than 5% of all incoming medical students nationwide. Students from underrepresentedracial/ethnic groups with rural backgrounds account for less than 0.5% of all new medical students.

"That means Black and Brown kids from rural areas account for less than one-half of one percent of all medicalstudents in the country," continued Dr. Bains. "If the number of rural students entering medical school were tobecome proportional to the number of rural families, that number would have to quadruple."

Research consistently demonstrates that doctors who train in rural areas are significantly more likely to practicethere. However, the UC system has resisted legislative efforts to create a medical school in the Southern SanJoaquin Valley. The Kern County GOOD Act builds on Dr. Bains' previous "Grow Our Own" Act, which establishedan endowment fund to support a local UC medical school. That bill was signed into law in 2024 despite facing opposition from the UC Office of the President, but the UC has taken no action since. With rural physicians retiringat rapid rates and health outcomes in the region stagnating, Dr. Bains argues the time for waiting is over.

"We've been waiting on the UC to act since the Carter Administration," said Dr. Bains. "I wasn't even born when thefederal government first declared a doctor shortage in Kern County. We cannot wait another half-century for the UCto decide we are worthy of their investment. If they won't build it, we will."

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Dr. Jasmeet Bains represents the 35th Assembly District in Kern County, including the cities of Bakersfield, Delano, Wasco, Arvin, Shafter, and McFarland.