The Supreme Court recently shot down President Joe Biden’s initiative to forgive up to $20,000 of student loan debt. Had the court found Biden's plan constitutional, it would have erased student loan debt for up to 43 million Americans, half of whom could have had their entire student loan balance wiped away. Within the medical laboratory community, the Biden plan could have provided loan forgiveness to many, including pathologists, residents, and non-physician laboratory professionals whose adjusted gross income was no more than $125,000.
The Court’s June 30 decision also means student loan debt holders who were hoping the Biden loan forgiveness would wipe out their loan debt will soon have to begin paying their loans again. The COVID-19 student loan payment hiatus that was initiated by President Trump will soon end. Payments are expected to resume in October.
But even though the Court put an end to Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, the Administration is working on an alternative plan to provide more affordable student loan repayment options and to broaden access to loan forgiveness. Rather than using an executive order to create these benefits, the Administration will be issuing regulations to provide them. As a result, the plan could take several years to come to fruition, assuming the President is re-elected. The President’s new plan aims to lower monthly loan payments, reduce interest accrual, and help borrowers with smaller balances access loan forgiveness sooner. Click
here to access a White House Fact Sheet on the new program.
In addition, other opportunities for student loan repayment benefits exist. The U.S. Department of Education released in late 2022
final regulations reforming its federal student loan programs. These regulations, supported by ASCP, reformed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF), under which healthcare professionals, including pathologists and laboratory professionals, may be
eligible for loan forgiveness benefits. For more information, click
here.
ASCP strongly supports expanding student loan forgiveness benefits for laboratory professionals and has been working to expand programs like the PSLF program and others to help incentivize careers in laboratory medicine.
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