Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S4321-4331)
Congressional Research Service
Official summary
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Apr 2, 2009
Health Access and Health Professions Supply Act of 2009 or HAHPSA 2009 — Establishes the Permanent National Health Workforce Commission. Requires the Commission to: (1) review federal policies related to the health professional workforce; (2) identify programs to reduce health professional isolation and build community health professional training infrastructure in rural, frontier, and urban underserved areas; and (3) develop guiding principles and accountability standards for the education of health professionals.
Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to makes matching grants to states for the operation of State Health Workforce Centers to improve the training, deployment, and retention of critical health professionals in underserved areas and for underserved populations.
Revises provisions related to payments for direct graduate medical education costs and for the indirect costs of medical education, including to: (1) support the implementation of community-based training and innovative training models; and (2) require the Secretary to revise policies that constrain the Secretary's ability to respond to emergency situations and situations involving institutional and program closure.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Read full official summaryShow less
Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary to use excess amounts appropriated to address shortages of health professionals in rural, frontier, and urban underserved areas.
Provides for the expansion of existing loan repayment programs to emphasize the provision of health professions services to facilities that have health professional shortages.
Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program for Medical, Dental, Physician Assistant, Pharmacy, Behavioral and Mental Health, Public Health, and Nursing Students in the United States Public Health Sciences Track in Affiliated Schools; and (2) award grants to increase health professions training in high-needs specialties.
Source last updated: Aug 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Explore the bill from different angles
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Neutral evidence review
Objective
Analyze S.790 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
View full prompt & sources
Fairness and public impact
Progressive lens
Examine S.790 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
View full prompt & sources
Institutions and government scope
Conservative lens
Examine S.790 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
View full prompt & sources
Individual rights and government power
Liberty lens
Examine S.790 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.