National Health Service Corps helps every U.S. State and most territories to provide desperately needed primary health care in areas where health care providers are in short supply by awarding scholarships and loan repayment to clinicians in exchange for at least two years service in a Health Professional Shortage Area.
- 3,800 doctors, dentists and other NHSC primary health care clinicians are working today in underserved communities nationwide — in small towns in the frontier west and in the most distressed inner-city neighborhoods.
- Currently 4 million people, many of whom have no health insurance, rely on NHSC clinicians to keep them healthy and treat their medical, dental and mental health ills.
- By the end of next year, those numbers are expected to grow to 8,108 clinicians serving almost 9 million people, as American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding more than doubles the National Health Service Corps field strength.
Who Benefits
National Health Service Corps scholarships enables students motivated to care for underserved people to enter and complete health professions training that might otherwise be unaffordable to them.
National Health Service Corps loan repayments relieve some of the staggering debt burden many health professionals face, freeing them to take a career path that may be less lucrative, but more satisfying.
Communities in Health Professional Shortage Areas gain access to needed health care services that often continues after a scholar’s two- to four-year service commitment and a loan repayor’s minimum two-year commitment has ended.
2009 Funding
$135 million appropriation to support
- 39 new scholars
- 977 new loan repayors
$300 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to support
- 114 new scholars in 2009-2011
- Approximately 3,300 new loan repayors between 2009 and 2011
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