Medical education: underrepresented medical specialties.

Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. Existing law establishes various educational loan assumption programs, administered by the commission, under which a qualified person enrolled in an institution of postsecondary education and participating in that loan assumption program is eligible to receive a conditional warrant for loan assumption, to be redeemed upon meeting the conditions of the loan assumption agreement. This bill would enact the Dolores H. Fox Underrepresented Medical Specialties Act, which would establish a loan assumption program for physicians working full time in California practicing in underrepresented specialties, as defined. This program would provide loan assumption benefits to persons who agree to work full time for 4 consecutive years in California as physicians practicing in underrepresented specialties, as specified. The program provides for a progressive assumption of the amount of a qualifying loan over 4 consecutive years of qualifying practice, up to a total loan assumption of $20,000. The bill would require that, in any fiscal year, the commission award no more than the number of warrants that are authorized in the Budget Act for that fiscal year for the assumption of loans pursuant to the program. This program would become inoperative on July 1, 2020, and would be repealed on January 1, 2021.