The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) is now accepting applications for its Loan Repayment Program which helps primary care providers pay off student loans while serving in communities with limited access to health care. The NHSC loan repayment and scholarship programs have enabled thousands of health care professionals to pursue their dreams of serving in primary care while eliminating most, if not all, of their qualifying educational debt.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, programs like the NHSC Loan Repayment program have increased the primary care workforce in the communities that need it most. Too many Americans—particularly in underserved areas—go without checkups, preventive screenings, vaccines, routine dental work and other care, simply because there is no one to provide care and treatment in their communities. The NHSC helps bridge that need with more than 9,200 primary care medical, dental, and mental and behavioral health professionals who provide care to 9.7 million clinicians working in communities in urban, rural and frontier areas.
As a result of the Affordable Care Act, the NHSC received an additional $283 million in funding for FY 2014 to expand its programs. Since 2008, the number of primary care providers in the Corps has more than doubled through ACA investments. The NHSC has supported more than 18,000 health care providers between 2009 and 2014.
