Student loan forgiveness for healthcare workers bill

By Whitney Faulconer, MD, YPS Secretary

It’s true! Lawmakers are becoming increasingly aware that repaying student loans is getting more difficult for many of our frontline healthcare workers. To address this issue, several legislators have penned bills that are outlined below. Want more details? This Forbes article is a comprehensive comparison of each bill.

Each bill still must be discussed in a committee and passed before the bill makes it to the floor for general voting, so we are still a long way from these becoming a solid plan. Still, this is worth keeping an eye on.

Opportunity for Heroes Act  by Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH)

  • Eligibility: Healthcare workers (RN, MD, DO, RT, tech), first responders, pharmacy workers, grocery store workers, postal workers
  • $25,000 toward both federal and private student loans
  • Not taxable income
  • Can use toward college tuition, continuing education or vocational training

Student Loan Forgiveness for Frontline Healthcare Workers Act by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)

  • Eligibility: doctors, nurses, aids, residents, interns, techs, researchers) who are caring for COVID-19 patients 
  • Entire loans forgiven without limit (public and private)
  • Not taxable income

Student Debt Emergency Relief Act by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar

  • Eligibility: students enrolled only
  • $30,000 forgiven on federal loans only (not private loans)
  • government would make payments after that for duration of the pandemic while “national emergency” is still in effect

If you're active on social media, you may have seen that there was extensive debate within the emergency medicine SoMe community related to student loan forgiveness. We're curious where you stand on the issue, so we invite you to take our survey covering this and more issues so we can accurately assess the YPS opinion and advocate on your behalf.

Apr 4

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Student loan forgiveness for healthcare workers bill

Mously Diakhate at the LifeLong Medical Care Brookside San Pablo Health Center in San Pablo, on March 22, 2022, where she has worked as a physician assistant in urgent care since 2017. The city has the highest COVID-19 rate in Contra Costa County.  (Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)

Throughout the pandemic, Mously Diakhate has been treating people in need of urgent care in one of the Bay Area's hardest-hit communities.

A physician assistant at LifeLong Medical Care Brookside San Pablo Health Center in the small East Bay city of San Pablo, which has suffered from the highest COVID-19 rate in Contra Costa County, Diakhate has consistently shown up for her patients, even as community clinics like hers typically offer substantially lower salaries than do private practices.

“We went into medicine to help people,” Diakhate said. “A pandemic is a scary situation, but we have to step up, we have to step up.”

In addition to the constant risk of virus exposure she has faced over the last two years, Diakhate also has felt the looming weight of another major stressor: the $74,000 in student debt she owes.

While the U.S. Department of Education has paused payments and interest on federal loans since March 2020, that respite is set to end in May.

“That’s my dilemma right now,” said Diakhate, 33, an immigrant from Senegal who was the first in her family to attend college. “It’s like, do I pay this student loan or do I use that money to help my family be more financially stable?”

But Diakhate, who mostly grew up in Oakland and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen, said she’s found a glimmer of hope in a recently introduced U.S. Senate bill that would forgive or fully repay student loan debt for frontline health care workers.

Senate Bill 3828, introduced by Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla from California and Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island, would benefit medical workers who have provided COVID-related health services during the pandemic. It would include physician assistants like Diakhate, as well doctors, nurses, medical interns, home health care workers, and emergency medical technicians transporting patients to hospitals.

The proposed legislation likely would have a major impact on California’s estimated 1.7 million health care workers. It comes at a time when the state is struggling to expand its health workforce to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population, and as longtime industry staffing shortages have been further exacerbated by pandemic burnout.

“Our brave frontline health care workers have fought tirelessly throughout the pandemic to ensure that our communities stay safe, often putting their own health at risk,” Padilla said in a statement, announcing his Student Loan Forgiveness for Frontline Health Workers Act. “Unfortunately, far too many of these workers are burdened by crippling student loan debt — that is simply unacceptable.”

There have been more than 35,000 COVID cases among California’s health care workers, resulting in roughly 400 deaths, according to Padilla’s office.

Dr. Janet Coffman, who teaches health policy at UCSF’s Healthforce Center, applauded the bill’s intent of recognizing health care workers’ deep sacrifices and challenges during the pandemic. But she said its current language about who would qualify for loan forgiveness seems “vague,” as hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of people likely would be eligible for the relief.

And a huge amount of funding would be needed to provide even a portion of that relief. For instance, most physicians who graduated last year shouldered an average student debt of $203,000, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. For recent dental graduates, it was even higher — nearly $302,000 — the American Dental Education Association reported.

“It makes sense to make it more targeted to those health professionals on the front lines in the hardest-hit communities, because the health professionals in those communities have the greatest exposure to COVID itself and the greatest stress associated with caring for people,” Coffman said.

Student loan debt is one of the main barriers preventing health professionals from working in underserved communities, where the pay is generally much lower, according to many health care experts.

Some current federal programs offer to forgive or repay a portion of student debt for health professionals who commit to working in underserved communities, like rural areas or lower-income urban neighborhoods. But those grants are extremely competitive, and Diakhate said she has been hesitant to apply, in part because many of her colleagues have been rejected.

And because she is not a physician or a dentist, Diakhate doesn’t qualify for other assistance options, such as the state-funded CalHealthCares program, which offers up to $300,000 in student loan repayments in exchange for a five-year commitment to work with Medi-Cal patients.

Diakhate said that the Padilla bill — if it passes — would make it easier for her to keep working with LifeLong’s mostly lower-income patients.

“That will be a burden taken off my shoulders and I can use whatever extra amount I can generate to further financially stabilize my family,” said Diakhate, who took a second job testing people for COVID-19 to make ends meet at home and help support her aging parents.

Student loan forgiveness for healthcare workers bill
Physician assistant Mously Diakhate inspects a sample in a microscope at LifeLong Medical Care Brookside San Pablo Health Center in San Pablo, on March 22, 2022. (Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)

But whether the loan forgiveness proposal can become a reality remains a big question. A similar House bill introduced last spring hasn’t advanced, as approval of billions of dollars in pandemic-relief funding continues to stall in Congress.

Padilla and Whitehouse said they both plan to push congressional leadership for more support for their bill to overcome the 60-vote threshold.

Meanwhile, as yet another COVID variant spreads across the country, better support for health care workers is urgently needed, said Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, who directs the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities.

“There has been an increase in suicides [among health care workers] and certainly an increase in anxiety, mood disorders, and even substance abuse,” he said. “They have been working so much under such difficult circumstances.”

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Will student loans be Forgiven for healthcare workers?

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) for healthcare workers. PSLF is the broadest and best student loan forgiveness option for medical professionals. Here are its eligibility requirements: Federal Direct Loans are eligible (not FFEL loans or private student loans)

Will student loans be forgiven for healthcare workers Biden?

In August, President Biden announced a multi-faceted plan to reduce student debt that many nurses and healthcare workers will directly benefit from. Most notably,the debt forgiveness plan forgives $10,000 each for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 per year.

Will there be student loan forgiveness for nurses?

Nurses must be employed full time to qualify for cancellation, and loans will be forgiven incrementally over five years. You must apply either through the school that disbursed the Perkins loans to you or through your loan servicer.

Do nurses qualify for student loan forgiveness 2022?

There is no federal student loan forgiveness for nurses because of COVID-19, but students are eligible for a no-interest payment freeze through August 31, 2022.