In 2023, Connecticut enacted a physician recruitment visa program and explicitly prioritized a short list of specialties for it — neurology, dermatology, and OB/GYN, according to reporting by NBC Connecticut. This is almost certainly connected to the federal Conrad 30 program, which allows each state to sponsor up to 30 international medical graduates per year for a J-1 visa waiver in exchange for a service commitment in an underserved area — Connecticut’s own Department of Public Health sponsors 30 physicians annually through this mechanism. The state naming OB/GYN as one of three priority specialties, out of every specialty it could have chosen, is a direct signal of where the need is most acute.

The state legislature is treating this as an active, current problem, not a settled one. As of 2026, two bills — Senate Bill 9 and Senate Bill 1228 — are working through the Connecticut legislature specifically aimed at addressing the physician shortage, with officials openly discussing incentive models used in other states — Kentucky’s $80,000 award for a two-year underserved-community commitment and Oklahoma’s $15,000-per-year medical student support were both cited directly by Connecticut health officials as models worth considering.