First Recipients of Hawaii’s Loan Repayment Program for Medical Professionals Announced
Just before Christmas on December 22, Hawaii Governor Josh Green announced the first round of recipients of the $30 million loan repayment program for medical professionals.
The Hawaii Healthcare Education Loan Repayment Program was launched in September to aid medical professionals in repaying their student debt and help ease Hawaii’s critical shortage of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals such as social workers, pharmacists, and medical assistants.
The first set of awardees received their acceptance letters on December 20. The awardees include close to 300 primary care and behavioral health providers across the state, 90 other specialties or professions practicing in rural areas and about 40 medical residents in training.
“This program is something special to me. As a physician and health care provider for my entire adult life in the state of Hawaii, I’ve seen the challenges that we face to deliver adequate care to our people,” the governor said in a press conference.
“The program will help us retain and expand our healthcare team statewide by roughly 500 medical personnel. This is gonna help us enhance health care by 750,000 of our citizens.”
Developed by the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, the state Department of Health and funded by the state legislature, the program received over 1,000 applications for the loan repayment program.
“These loan repayment amounts, while it doesn’t completely wipe out their debts, is a huge sigh of relief and gives them a little bit of breathing room,” said JABSOM’s interim dean Dr. Lee Buenconsejo-Lum.
“The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on many, especially those in private practice. Most have not fully recovered and face difficult decisions about staying in Hawaiʻi. This program helps us keep local doctors and other providers here despite our very high cost of living and myriad other challenges.”
In its first year, the program will disperse $10 million, and then $20 million in its second year. Officials hope to encourage medical professionals to stay in Hawaii with the loan repayment program.
“We want to be the first state that has no shortage whatsoever of access to health care. This is our view of universal care, which is everyone can actually find a health care provider,” said Green.
