Senators Hassan and Murkowski Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Grow Addiction Care Workforce Through Student Loan Debt Relief Program

WASHINGTON – Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced bipartisan legislation to reauthorize and double the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program, which provides student loan repayment for health care workers who focus on addiction treatment and recovery in underserved areas. This program, which Senators Hassan and Murkowski helped create, is a key part of helping recruit a strong health care workforce of physicians, nurses, social workers, and mental health workers to combat the opioid epidemic, but authorization for the program expired on September 30. This legislation would reauthorize the program, double its authorization from $25 to $50 million, and also make the loan payments tax exempt, bringing it in line with similar programs like the National Health Service Corps and the Perkins Loan programs.

“Responding to the opioid epidemic requires building a robust health care workforce, and this bipartisan legislation will help recruit more doctors, nurses, and social workers to help get Granite Staters struggling with addiction the treatment that they need,” said Senator Hassan. “This program has made a significant impact in our ability to recruit and retain the professionals needed to combat this crisis, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.”

“We see healthcare workforce shortages across the board, especially for substance use disorder treatment specialists,” said Senator Murkowski. “This isn’t just an issue in our rural communities – Alaskans in urban centers are experiencing challenges in accessing care as well, requiring travel out of state for treatment or prolonged time spent in emergency rooms due to the lack of providers. When people in crisis are ready to seek help, services need to be available. This legislation will reduce barriers to training and education, and help bolster our treatment and recovery services in the fight against the opioid epidemic.”

The STAR Loan Repayment Reauthorization Act of 2023 would reauthorize and expand a program that was first created through the SUPPORT Act – a landmark investment into substance misuse prevention, treatment, recovery, and law enforcement efforts that Senator Hassan worked to pass into law in 2018. Projections from last year showed that there will be a shortage of 24,060 behavioral health providers by 2030.

Senator Hassan has worked on bipartisan efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and continues to work to reauthorize the SUPPORT Act. Recently, Senator Hassan introduced bipartisan legislation to permanently expand coverage for medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorder under Medicaid as well as bipartisan legislation that expands access to short-term inpatient treatment at addiction treatment facilities, both of which could also be part of the SUPPORT Act reauthorization. Since 2017, Senator Hassan has successfully worked to secure a nine-fold increase in funding to New Hampshire to address the substance use disorder epidemic. Senator Hassan successfully passed into law her bipartisan Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act, to increase the number of medical professionals authorized to prescribe the gold standard of opioid treatment. Senator Hassan also worked with her colleagues to pass into law the bipartisan INTERDICT Act, which has provided critical tools to Customs and Border Protection to help detect and intercept fentanyl and other illegal synthetic opioids.

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