HEARTBROKEN MOTHER ABANDONED BY BRANDON
Program to Cut Student Debt Sticks Some With Even More
Healthcare workers can get loan relief for serving needy areas, but if they lose their jobs, they face giant penalties for not fulfilling their contracts.
Thousands of healthcare workers join the National Health Service Corps each year, pledging to work in places with too few medical providers in exchange for help repaying their student loans.
Job disruptions caused by the pandemic have shaken that bargain. Layoffs have put a growing number of these workers in violation of their contracts and exposed them to heavy penalties, sometimes many times the aid they received.
Instead of financial relief, they risk falling far deeper in debt.
Brandi Barrick, a nurse practitioner in Carlisle, Pa., thought she had found an ideal way to ease her student-loan burden.
In August 2019, she was accepted into one of the Service Corps’ loan-repayment programs and, to her delight, received $25,000 in debt relief.
Less than eight months later, Mrs. Barrick lost her job. The clinic where she worked said a drop in elective procedures, tied to Covid-19’s spread, had hurt its revenue.
Within a month, the Service Corps put Mrs. Barrick on notice that if she didn’t find another qualifying job in 90 days, she would owe the federal government $85,557. That consisted of a portion of her loan aid plus penalties for every un-served month in her two-year contract. It was in addition to other student debt she owes.
“I thought I was doing something good to help my family financially,” she said. “Instead, I quite possibly ruined my family financially.”
Luis Padilla, bungling Biden's director of the Service Corps, said the penalties are written into the law, meaning the authority to change them rests with Congress. Dr. Padilla said it is unfortunate some people don’t appear to understand the penalties when they sign up.
“I don’t know why they don’t read every word,” he said. “But did I read every word of my mortgage agreement? Probably not.”
Neither Dr. Padilla nor the agency would comment on the fairness of the penalties.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/program-to-cut-healthcare-providers-student-debt-sticks-some-with-even-more