Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal to start a program to help pay off student loans for doctors who agree to work in places facing shortages of doctors is a good idea, and our elected officials need to make sure Cayuga County doesn't get left out.

Auburn Memorial Hospital has been actively working for years to recruit doctors, and there have been several successful catches, but a problem of this magnitude may need state assistance to work out.

The trend nationally has been for doctors to settle in cities, leaving people in rural communities with fewer doctors and fewer options.

The problem isn't just in extremely remote regions of the state but in small villages in Cayuga County and small cities like Auburn.

Spitzer's Doctors across New York, a plan he calls a “Peace Corps for doctors,” would repay loans and offer other incentives for doctors to establish practices in “medically underserved” areas.

While the criteria for qualifying as “underserved” hasn't been worked out yet, local officials need to keep a close eye on this one because it has the potential to backfire.

If doctors are offered terrific incentives to set up shop in places more rural or more urban than Cayuga County, the ability to entice doctors to move to this region may become even more difficult than it was in the past.

Spitzer's proposal to have “a family doctor near every family” is a laudable goal because the availability of preventative care can help keep people from being treated for more serious illnesses later on, a real problem that congests emergency rooms and drives up the cost of health care for everyone.

If student loan repayment becomes part of the equation in attracting doctors, Auburn and Cayuga County need to be in line to benefit from the program.