Kamala Harris wants to expand student-loan forgiveness for 10,000 doctors and nurses who agree to work in rural areas

Vice President Kamala Harris proposed expanding student-loan forgiveness for rural healthcare workers.

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.

Rural healthcare shortages are a widespread problem across the country. According to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over 25 million Americans live in rural regions that have a shortage of primary care providers, generally defined by HHS as fewer than one doctor per 3,500 residents. Research from the Journal of General Internal Medicine has found that 20% of Americans live in rural areas — but just 10% of doctors practice in those same areas.

To address gaps in healthcare coverage, Harris last week proposed a Medicare benefit to cover in-home care needs for older adults to appeal to the “sandwich generation,” or the adults who are raising young kids while also caring for aging parents. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 37.1 million Americans provide unpaid eldercare.

“There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle,” Harris said during an interview on The View. “They’re taking care of their kids, and they’re taking care of their aging parents, and it’s just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work.”

Matthew Hildreth, the Harris campaign’s director of rural engagement, told B-17 in a statement that “the Harris-Walz campaign is making a real commitment to rural communities.”

“They both understand that rural voters are the foundation of our country, and they want rural voters to know that they have a home in their campaign – that is fundamentally about patriotism, freedom and opportunity,” Hildreth said.

Former President Donald Trump had a stronghold over rural voters in the 2020 election, and while he’s fighting to maintain that lead this time around — his campaign launched a “Rural Americans for Trump” coalition in August — Harris and her VP pick Tim Walz are hoping to latch onto the rural voters who are not sold on Trump. The proposals come after the Trump administration launched their own effort in 2020 to combat the issues facing rural healthcare, with communities pitching the Trump administration on potential solutions.

Anna Kelly, the Republican National Committee spokesperson, told B-17 in a statement that Harris is “lying about plans to make healthcare and overall costs more affordable for rural communities.”

“President Trump will fight to get Americans the best drug prices in the world that are produced at the highest standard by manufacturing them here in the USA,” Kelly said.