The program will help medical professionals working in certain areas pay off educational loans, in an attempt to keep them from leaving for jobs in places with higher salaries. The announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services comes amid a dip in the health-care workforce after the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States. About 15.9 million people were working in health care nationwide as of September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, down about 524,000 from February 2020. Most of the decline was concentrated among nursing and residential care center staff.
