Harrisburg, PA – As Pennsylvania faces a growing health care workforce shortage — particularly in rural communities — providers are voicing their support for Governor Josh Shapiro’s 2025–26 budget proposal, which includes targeted, commonsense investments to strengthen the health care workforce — ensuring communities across Pennsylvania have access to high-quality care. The General Assembly is now considering Governor Shapiro’s proposal.
Across Pennsylvania, rural communities face significant challenges in accessing health care. In rural counties, there is only one primary care physician for every 522 residents, compared to one for every 222 residents in urban areas. Over the past 20 years, more than 30 rural hospitals in Pennsylvania have reduced services or closed entirely. Behavioral health care access is also a growing crisis, with Pennsylvania expected to face a shortage of more than 6,300 mental health professionals by 2026.
To combat these challenges, Governor Shapiro’s 2025-26 budget proposes:
$5 million to expand the Primary Care Loan Repayment Program at the Department of Health, providing loan forgiveness for physicians, dentists, and psychologists who commit to serving in Health Professional Shortage Areas.
$10 million to expand behavioral health loan repayment programs, ensuring providers are available statewide to meet growing demand for mental health care.
$5 million to educate, train, and recruit nursing professionals through tuition support, ensuring a steady pipeline of skilled staff in rural hospitals.
$10 million to support struggling rural hospitals that have been forced to cut services or close their doors — leveraging an additional $25.1 million in federal matching funds for a total investment of $35.1 million.
Legislation to grant full practice authority to nurse practitioners who have worked under a physician for at least three years, improving access to care in underserved communities.
Governor Shapiro’s proposal ensures that more Pennsylvanians — no matter where they live — can access high-quality, affordable health care, and that the providers who care for them have the tools and support to stay in their communities.
Click here to watch Adam Ohnmacht, Family Medicine Resident, of Millersburg; Mandy Maneval, Academic Family Physician, of Richfield; and Madalynn Marrone, Registered Traveling Nurse, of Mifflintown, talk about the Governor’s proposed health care investments and share their stories, or read the transcript below.
TRANSCRIPT
“I do believe that just because we're a rural area doesn't mean that we shouldn't have access to great health care.
“When you have less access to care, things kind of go under the rug.
“Health care is at the forefront of everything. So, I think if when we have somebody in charge who wants to invest in the people who are going to help our citizens, it means that we're heading in the right direction. My name is Adam Ohnmacht. I live in Millersburg, Pennsylvania, and I'm a family medicine resident.
“I'm Mandy Maneval. I live in Richfield, Pennsylvania, and I am an Academic Family Physician.
“My name is Madalynn Marrone. I live in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, and I'm a registered travel nurse.
“I ended up here in Mifflintown because I was born and raised here. So this is a community that I really love, and it's my home.
“It was really nice to grow up with people that you know, the community is very supportive, feels very tight knit.
“When looking to pursue a career, I was trying to find something that I felt like would be able to give back to the community, because I never wanted to leave the area. So, you know, being a physician seemed like one of the things that we needed most in the area.
“Definitely, like I felt a calling just to like, serve like I wanted to be like, in service of other people. And it just turns out that nursing just happened to be the best path to that. High school is a quick four years.
“And then four years of college.
“Four years of medical school, and then three years of residency.
“It's a lot of years.
“A couple of things, I guess, that are difficult about travel nursing, every hospital and hospital system does things differently from one another. So, I got one shift of orientation, so 12 hours to learn, kind of the entirety of it, until they kind of drop you in there and they expect you to do your job, which, of course, we're ready to do, but that's also very challenging.
“So practicing in a rural community has a set of challenges that I feel are pretty unique.
“I like to think of what we do as, like rural family docs is like we are all the specialists in one, because if we send, if we have to send somebody to, like, dermatology or and, you know, some of the more specialized practices, they could take six months to a year until they get seen. I think we have a leader in the state now who is investing in the health care workers. If you invest in health care, you're investing in the citizens of Pennsylvania.
“Most medical students graduate with a tremendous amount of debt, student debt, and so things like loan repayment, investing in rural hospitals, so that, you know, rural docs can work in their community and not burn out, and that they can really follow their passion and see themselves in a career here. Those things are fundamental, I think, to sustaining healthcare in rural communities.
“I think Governor Shapiro's plan is great, providing monetary support to nurses. The support staff, so, like our CNAs, patient care technicians, like they are, like truly, the backbone of health care, like they make our job 1,000 times easier. And when you don't have that help it shows.
“We've shown in Pennsylvania an ability to solve problems, an ability to bring people together to tackle these big challenges. This is the next thing we have to solve, to deal with our health care challenges of tomorrow.
“Funding into rural hospitals. It's going to provide jobs for people in the local area.
“I don't see myself leaving Mifflintown. I love the challenges here. I love the people. I love the fact that I can train students and residents here, and then hopefully, you know, my love for rural family medicine will rub off on them, and we can retain them here in our community.
“The opportunity to serve the community that has taught me so much and that has given me so much is just fulfilling. It's very fulfilling.”
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