Before serving in Congress, I worked closely with physicians and other health providers throughout the state of Maryland. Unfortunately, the shortage of health professionals, particularly primary care physicians, is a problem that has been building for many years. A recent article in The Sun, "Medical schools don't produce enough primary care doctors, study says" (June 16), drew attention to this problem and accurately pinpointed some of the reasons for it.

Medical school debt can be a severe burden for young physicians. As a result, many make the decision to forego primary care for a more lucrative field of medicine in order to repay that debt. That's one of the reasons I authored a law creating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Option which forgives student debt for borrowers after they complete 10 years of public service work and make regular student loan payments based on a percentage of their income. Physicians and other health professionals who work in community-based health clinics qualify for this program.

Addressing workforce shortages was also a top priority for me when Congress crafted health care reform legislation. The new law provides scholarships and loan repayment for primary care providers in health shortage areas, strengthens grant programs for primary care training, provides a 10 percent bonus under Medicare for primary care services and redistributes unused residency slots to medical programs that train more primary care physicians and general surgeons. It also establishes a new advisory commission that will help align our health care work force with the needs of the greater population — now and into the future.

Even though health reform is now law, our work is still far from done. We can find innovative solutions that will bring more physicians into primary care by reducing barriers for retired physicians to serve on a temporary or part-time basis, providing incentives for specialists to take on primary care patients, and training our returning military medics to work in health care.

An adequate and properly organized workforce is critical to supporting a high-quality health care delivery system, and this will remain a top priority of mine in Congress.

Rep. John Sarbanes, Baltimore

The writer is a Democrat representing Maryland's 3rd District.