Healthcare workers would have their student loans completely forgiven in a newly proposed bill

• Healthcare workers who are responding to the coronavirus pandemic could have their public and private student loans forgiven under a new bill from Rep. Carolyn Maloney.
• Maloney's bill would forgive loans from medical school or other professional education.
• Nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers would be eligible for the loan relief, though a special commission would ultimately determine eligibility.
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Rep. Carolyn Maloney announced a bill on Tuesday to forgive public and private student loans for healthcare workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.

The bill, if passed into law, would forgive loans incurred from medical school or other professional education, and the amount of loans relieved has "absolutely no cap," Maloney said in a press call.

Nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers who are responding to the COVID-19 crisis would be eligible for the relief from the "Student Loan Forgiveness for Frontline Health Workers Act."

Eligibility would be determined by a special commission to determine which workers qualify, but Maloney said all workers directly combatting the coronavirus should have their loans relieved. Technicians, nursing aides, and even researchers working toward treatments and vaccines could be eligible, Maloney said.

"We should do more than thanking them" and forgiving loans is a "concrete" way to do that, Maloney said.

Maloney, a Democrat representing parts of New York City, likened the response from healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic to the response from emergency first responders during the 9/11 attacks.

Other Democrats in the House have proposed more widespread student loan forgiveness, but only for public loans and with a $30,000 cap.

Maloney said she's supportive of "debt relief for all" but a more targeted approach, like relief for healthcare workers, could have a better chance of passing Congress more quickly. "We have to get through this crisis now," she said.

Maloney is planning to introduce the relief bill for healthcare workers as a standalone bill rather than as a provision in a future, larger coronavirus relief package, which could go through long and strenuous negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.