How new Ga. legislation could improve health care across state
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - New bills signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp could have an impact on those who are underserved in the Peach State.
Kemp on Friday signed bills to loosen rules on building new hospitals, expand the rural physician tax credit, allow student loan forgiveness for rural dental professionals, establish a loan repayment program for eligible mental health and substance use professionals, and reorganize the county boards of public health.
We spoke with a dental student about how the loan forgiveness for those serving in rural areas will help.
It’s a way to get more health care workers in underserved areas across the state, and now that includes dentists.
“It’s a really big issue. Health care in rural communities is a big issue. And anything we can do to kind of incentivize more dentists moving out to those areas, and kind of covering those health care deserts is always going to be a great thing,” said dental student Tristan Pugh.
It’s aimed right at their bank , offering loans and canceling student loan payments in some cases.
“I’m sure that that’s going to be a huge motivating factor when people are considering loans. I know there’s a lot of people in my class specifically that want to move to rural areas. And so, this is going to be something that is going to pay dividends I’m sure in their experience,” said Pugh.
Pugh says one of the biggest issues about moving to a rural community is start-up costs for dental practices and this bill could help that too.
“Taking out a bunch of loans that we have now, you know, graduating with debt around 250,000 Plus, it’s really daunting to take on an extra, however many 1000s of dollars, you need to open up a practice. So, that pushes people into working for an office that’s already established or a DSO, or something like that. So, this really does give people kind of a leg up advantage to be able to have that capital upfront to open a practice, or at least not as much loan debt to like, scare them away from being able to move to a rural community,” he said.
Pugh advocated for the bill and encouraged more students to take advantage in making a difference for not only themselves but the patients they’ll serve.
“It’s really cool to see things on the state level workout to an offer, you know, give us an opportunity to really be able to, like do things for rural Georgia, and just do things for our patients here,” he said.
Since a lot of Georgia is a rural area, they hope this will make a big difference towards getting more medical services to those counties.
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