In the States

Since 2006 more than 340,00 previously uninsured residents of Massachusetts have gained health insurance. As The New York Times recently noted, the expansion in coverage stretched the state's health care resources, especially in primary care. That's why we were particularly encouraged to read Elizabeth Cooney's Boston Globe piece on how community health clinics in Massachusetts have successfully recruited much-needed primary care physicians through a loan repayment program.

Funded by a $5 million grant from the Bank of America and administered by the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, the program provides up $25,000 a year for three years to repay loans. In its first year the program recruited 47 clinicians—more than double what they expected. Before the incentives, these centers last year had been unable to fill about 10 percent of their primary care positions.