It’s a rollout with high hopes to attract and keep more health professionals in Hawaii: the new Healthcare Education Loan Repayment Program, or HELP.

With $30 million funded by this year’s Legislature, the state program offers health-care workers with Hawaii ties up to $50,000 in annual loan repayments if they commit to at least two years of helping patients here. The hope is to ease the demand for an estimated 4,000 health care workers, especially on the neighbor islands and in rural Oahu. It’s a worthy effort; now the state needs workers to apply. For more, see www.ahec.hawaii.edu.