With Hawaii’s Legislature putting money where the need is this year, there’s reason for rising optimism — or at least relief — over the state of the state’s public health-care system, as well as better access to care from private physicians and health professionals of all stripes.

Increased funding is the big news for the state’s publicly supported hospitals, which have been visibly deteriorating while necessary, but costly, maintenance and repairs have been deferred. The added dollars will help stabilize these hospitals, ensuring continued access to health care.

For Hilo Medical Center, $50 million in capital improvements funding will allow for a long-awaited, often-requested expansion with a new wing to serve more patients. It’s the fulfillment of a five-year quest to remedy consistent overcrowding at the Hilo facility, as the community it serves has continued to grow — and age — and positions the hospital to meet community needs for up to 20 additional years.

At Kona Community Hospital, conditions had gotten so bad that administrators feared having to close down an operating room over air quality too poor to meet standards for treating patients with severe trauma. The budget for the almost 50-year-old hospital includes $16.2 million to overhaul the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system and central utility plant. Another $2.3 million will allow expansion of the hospital pharmacy to include a facility capable of mixing drugs needed for cancer patients — necessary to meet regulations for adequate cancer care.

In the wake of these successes, it’s necessary next to commit to budgeting the state’s hospitals appropriately on a long-term basis. It’s time for the state to end its dysfunctional routine of running an operation until the wheels fall off, denying funding for deferred maintenance or staffing issues until they reach crisis mode.

Especially when it comes to health care, certain long-term needs should not be considered negotiable, including quality controls, staffing and facilities maintenance. It should also be nonnegotiable that public hospital administrators provide legislators — and taxpayers — with a full and clear picture of each institution’s long-term financial and operational status, information necessary to stay on top of needs.

Among other health-related strides:

>> State lawmakers’ funding to boost reimbursement rates for doctors who treat Medicaid recipients is a promising development, with $60 million allocated over the next two fiscal years to match Medicare payments. Notably, the approach also will draw an additional $86 million in federal matching funds — with all $146 million to be circulated within the state.

As a targeted approach to easing a critical problem, it’s a good use of state money — incentivizing local doctors to treat Medicaid patients, and ideally, attracting new primary-care physicians and specialists, currently in tight supply, to the state. More than half of the state’s residents, including a high share of Hawaii’s youth, low-income families and adults with disabilities, are covered by Medicaid.

>> Hawaii, admirably, is taking the lead in funding a Hawaii State Loan Repayment Program for Healthcare Professionals, moving $30 million over two years to address a shortage of health-care professionals. The program is first in the nation to provide loan repayment for a wide range of professionals who commit to work in federally designated shortage areas — not only doctors, but also registered nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, psychologists and social workers, marriage and family therapists.

These akamai advances have been supported strongly by Gov. Josh Green, for the benefit of Hawaii’s people, and he’s right to put them into play. With continued commitment from the state, Hawaii can actually move the needle on its health-care system, improving public health for years to come.