Maine Senate unanimously passes bill to attract and retain Maine doctors

Courtesy / Senate Majority Office Students from the Tufts Medical School Maine Track program who were on hand to watch the Senate vote on LD 440 join Sen. Linda Sanborn, D-Gorham, fifth from left, for a group photo in the State House.

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By James McCarthy

The Maine Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill introduced by Sen. Linda Sanborn, D-Gorham, that seeks to attract and retain recently graduated doctors in Maine.

LD 440, “An Act To Continue the Doctors for Maine's Future Scholarship Program,” would provide continuing funding to the Doctors for Maine’s Future Scholarship program, which provides scholarships to medical students at the Maine-based University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Tufts Medical School Maine Track program.

As proposed, the bill seeks $800,000 in funding in 2019-20 and $800,000 in 2020-21.

“The Doctors for Maine’s Future program ensures that the next generation of doctors are able to practice in Maine and provide the critical services that our state needs,” Sanborn. “I’m glad to see this bill receive such strong support from my colleagues.”

University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Tufts Medical School Maine Track program are the only two Maine-specific medical programs in the country. In order to receive the Doctors for Maine’s Future scholarship, students must have a strong connection to Maine and at least one year of residence in Maine for a purpose other than education. Preference is given to candidates who have graduated from a Maine high school, received a bachelor’s degree from a Maine college or university or whose parents live in Maine.

Bill Norbert, governmental affairs and communications manager at the Finance Authority of Maine, voiced support for the bill at an April 4 public hearing before the 129th Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement and Business.

Norbert told committee members that the scholarship program, which was created by the 124th Legislature, provides a tuition subsidy of 50% of the cost of attendance annually, up to a maximum of $25,000 per student annually, for eligible students who enter qualifying Maine-based medical school programs. For each student funded with a Doctors for Maine’s Future Scholarship, the participating medical schools fund an additional scholarship on similar terms. Thus, he said, the program in effect has a 1:1 match ratio.

“The goal of the program is to increase the number of physicians in the state who practice in primary care, underserved specialties or underserved areas of Maine,” he said.

LD 440 now faces votes in the House and further action in the Senate.