Sgro suggested that Guam officials explore the federal option amid the senators’ discussion on three bills that seek to step up physician recruitment efforts for Guam.
During a health summit hosted by the Department of Interior in Honolulu in September last year, Sgro cited a CNBC report on U.S. doctors who owed the government hundreds and millions of dollars in medical school loans.
Under the federal program, practicing doctors with delinquent loans can get a 25 percent debt relief for each year that they work in a physician-shortage are such as Guam, the CNMI and other islands in the Pacific.
“I think that’s one area where you have literally hundreds of thousands of doctors that owe the federal government money and what more than to want to pay down a $250,000 loan you’re a young doctor just out of school,” read the transcript of Sgro’s statement during the Honolulu health summit.
Sgro described the program as a “sophisticated recruiting plan” that can provide a short-term solution to fill the gap in the medical sector on Guam.
During the same forum, then-DOI Secretary Dirk Kempthorne cited the same program for medical students under the military scholarship program and suggested that military physicians be rotated among U.S. territories and other island nations in the Pacific.
At least three related bills are pending in the Legislature.
Sen. Telo Taitague’s Bills 250 and Speaker Judi Won Pat’s Bill 251 both propose the recruitment of medical students through loan payment incentive programs.
Both bill target students burdened with loans and former Guam residents who have been practicing medicine off-shore. Won Pat earlier mentioned a plan to consolidate both bills which both seek to tap into the Healthy Futures Fund as the source of medical loan payment grants. The fund collects over $10 million a year and as of June 30, it has an unalloted balance of $2.8 million.
Sen. Ray Tenorio’s Bill 210 proposes a tax breaks for physicians through the qualifying certificate program.
