Vice President Kamala Harris is proposing an expansion of student-loan forgiveness programs to recruit healthcare workers to rural areas in the US.
Vice President Kamala Harris has a plan to bolster healthcare in rural communities in the US — and she wants to try to lure thousands of medical professionals to underserved areas.
On Tuesday, Harris’ campaign released a new initiative to invest in rural communities by expanding healthcare, lowering childcare costs, supporting new housing units, and ensuring farmers and ranchers have the financial support they need to sustain their businesses. Some of the proposals in the initiative are built on previously announced policies.
Over the past few weeks, Harris has released a slate of proposals aimed at making healthcare more affordable and accessible for Americans, and her latest announcement builds on that effort. According to her campaign, Harris plans to recruit 10,000 healthcare professionals to work in rural and tribal areas. To incentivize those workers, the initiative would expand scholarships, student-loan repayment programs, and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program — which forgives student loans for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments — to make it easier for the healthcare workers to pay off their educations.
The campaign is also proposing new measures to help keep local pharmacies and rural hospitals afloat, along with maintaining and strengthening access to telehealth.
