Movement to Forgive Health Care Workers' Student Debt

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I'm not sure if many are aware at this point because we are all so busy caring for our patients and trying to keep each other safe and informed at the same time.... but I think it is important to know that there is a growing movement to forgive health care workers' student loan debt, which I know would lift a lot of stress off of our shoulders.

The cost of doing so, would be a fraction of the cost of the most recent 2.2 trillion dollar CAREs ACT passed by congress, and Rep Maloney is introducing a bill, and MoveOn has a petition with close to 500K signatures as of now. There are an estimated 7 million healthcare workers in the US. Lets do our part, sign the petition, share it with your co-workers, family, and friends who are looking for ways to help. Stay safe and keep up the work of a hero!

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/forgive-student-loan-debt-for-doctors-nurses-and-health-professionals

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/09/movement-forgive-health-care-workers-student-debt

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doctors-covid-19-student-loan-forgiveness_n_5e887a85c5b6e7d76c64a30f

Specializes in Psych.

@Emergent I've been paying out of pocket every semester so far. Figured that since I make decent money as a nurse why should I borrow for NP school when I can pay outright and not get charged interest?

I actually borrowed a lot for the Summer semester, well in excess of tuition. Got the Federal Direct Unsubsidized loan. The Feds have suspended payments and lowered the interest rate to 0% until Sept. 30. So basically I just borrowed all this money which I don't have to pay interest on for months on end. This is an awesome deal.

But having these loans forgiven would be icing on the cake!

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
7 hours ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

@Emergent I've been paying out of pocket every semester so far. Figured that since I make decent money as a nurse why should I borrow for NP school when I can pay outright and not get charged interest?

I actually borrowed a lot for the Summer semester, well in excess of tuition. Got the Federal Direct Unsubsidized loan. The Feds have suspended payments and lowered the interest rate to 0% until Sept. 30. So basically I just borrowed all this money which I don't have to pay interest on for months on end. This is an awesome deal.

But having these loans forgiven would be icing on the cake!

Contact DeVos, although she supports that profit center personally so...

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Okay, but what about all of the other people who are invaluable to society and also have debt? Not paying my bills would certainly "lift a lot of stress", but that's true for everyone.

My education was an investment that I will benefit from. I'm not sure I'm comfortable insisting that everyone else pay for it.

Of course if anyone here wants to pay my debts off, ??❤️

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
14 minutes ago, Sour Lemon said:

Okay, but what about all of the other people who are invaluable to society and also have debt? Not paying my bills would certainly "lift a lot of stress", but that's true for everyone.

My education was an investment that I will benefit from. I'm not sure I'm comfortable insisting that everyone else pay for it.

Of course if anyone here wants to pay my debts off, ??❤️

Forgive it all.

Free college for everyone.

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23 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

Forgive it all.

Free college for everyone.

I wish, but "free" things have to be paid for by someone at some point.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
2 minutes ago, Sour Lemon said:

I wish, but "free" things have to be paid for by someone at some point.

Just the same people who pay for endless war and bailouts for the "too big to fail".

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1 hour ago, Sour Lemon said:

Okay, but what about all of the other people who are invaluable to society and also have debt? Not paying my bills would certainly "lift a lot of stress", but that's true for everyone.

My education was an investment that I will benefit from. I'm not sure I'm comfortable insisting that everyone else pay for it.

Of course if anyone here wants to pay my debts off, ??❤️

Ha. They're welcome to pay off my debts too, tho so far no takers.

At minimum, 2 year community colleges for trade degrees, including but not limited to medical, should be free of charge. That's not a particular expensive feat and would more than pay itself back in the tax revenue and industry it generates. (full disclosure: I've long been in the fan club of grants over loans precisely for this reason0.

I go further. I believe any STEMI degree should be free provided the applicant is willing to put in the work to pass the entrance exams to prove they are committed and will be successful.

Case in point: India enacted this exactly sometime in the late 70's. Flash forward forty years later:

Now it turns out 500-800 comp sci/engineers annually. Throw in medical and legal professionals and they're turning out well over 1,000,000 annually (meanwhile the Usa might get 60k compsci grads a year if that who still are willing to take on 200k in debt and hope there's a junior job left on our shores they'll find)

Guess where near all the venture capital goes these days? Guess where all your tech companies have moved substantial if not all of their development efforts? (don't take my word for it, dilly on out to LinkedIn, GlassDoor, Instahyre or Naurkri and take a look.)

Guess where near entire IT depts. of near every American fortune 500 company are hosted?

Where are the images read at your organization before the ordering doc signs off?

Take a look at the infrastructure, high speed transit, etc in Bangalore or Hyderabad sometime.

PS - contrary to reactive reflex of ease, jobs didn't go there because Indian's are cheaper or don't have benefits. They go there because they are BETTER EDUCATED. the same reason that the microprocessor industry was in Silicon Valley and Boston and not Marysville, Ohio.

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We are making progress! Yesterday Rep Maloney of NY, along with the bills cosponsored, introduced the Student Loan Forgiveness for Frontline Health Workers Act to the US Congress and it is catching on in the media again.

PLEASE sign the petition and get friends, family, and coworkers to sign it and if they can call their representatives and senators.

The petition is now over 500k... It should be in the millions with how many healthcare workers there are in the US, so we are doing a poor job building this momentum. Let get it done!

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/forgive-student-loan-debt-for-doctors-nurses-and-health-professionals

or use: tinyurl.com/thankhealthcareheroes

Be safe!

Rep Maloney introducing the bill:

Read the bill, if you're into legal jargon:https://maloney.house.gov/sites/maloney.house.gov/files/BILL FOR INTRO Student Loan Forgiveness for Frontline Health Workers_Maloney.pdf

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So there is now a petition specific for the Student Loan Forgiveness for Frontline Health Workers Act:

https://www.change.org/p/u-s-house-of-representatives-ask-congress-to-forgive-student-debt-for-covid-19-responders-o-in-healthcare/u/26560952

Here is also a vid, which is pretty good. Talks about the details of the bill if you don't have time to read it right now.

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