Healthcare workers to benefit from $6B student loan relief
The White House says public service workers never got the relief they were entitled to under the law "because of past administrative failures."
Photo: ER Productions Limited/Getty Images
The Biden administration this week said it will release an additional $5.8 billion in student loan debt relief, this time targeting roughly 78,000 public service workers, including those in the healthcare industry.
These approvals are the result of fixes made by the administration to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
In the notice, the White House said public service workers never got the relief they were entitled to under the law "because of past administrative failures."
To date, the administration has now canceled student debt for about 870,000 public service workers. That compares to about 7,000 public service borrowers receiving forgiveness prior to 2021.
In all, about 4 million Americans have had their student debt canceled during Biden's presidency, the White House said.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT
The debt relief includes borrowers who have benefited from the administration's limited Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver as well as regulatory improvements made to the program. Total relief through PSLF is now $62.5 billion for 871,000 borrowers since October 2021. Prior to the fixes to PSLF, only about 7,000 borrowers had ever received forgiveness.
An additional nearly 380,000 borrowers who are within two years, or 24 qualifying payments, of receiving forgiveness under PSLF will also receive an email from President Biden starting next week thanking them for their service and notifying them that if they continue in their public service work, they will be eligible for forgiveness within that time frame.
"The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is an important way to bring more Americans into public service and help them get out from under the burden of student loan debt," the email reads. "But for too long, the program failed to live up to its commitments – and public service workers like you never got the relief you are entitled to under the law because of errors and administrative failures. I vowed to fix that, and I'm proud that my Administration has delivered on that promise."
THE LARGER TREND
The administration highlighted recent progress, including providing the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than roughly $60,000 a year; fixing Income-Driven Repayment plans so borrowers in repayment for years get relief; and creating the SAVE plan, which the administration describes as "the most generous income-driven repayment plan in history."
Beyond the relief under PSLF, the Biden-Harris administration has also approved $45.6 billion for 930,500 borrowers through improvements to income-driven repayment plans; $22.5 billion for more than 1.3 million borrowers who saw their institutions close or are covered by related court settlements; $11.7 billion for almost 513,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability; and $1.7 billion for 29,700 borrowers through administrative adjustments to IDR payment counts.
The move comes during a presidential election year when the Biden administration has repeatedly compared its efforts in healthcare, such as efforts to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, to that of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.
