Congressman: Defer payments for cancer patients

A Colorado congressman is backing a bill that, if approved, would pause student loan payments for patients while they receive cancer treatments.

The bill, supported by U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, DArvada, is part of an appropriations package the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on — and approve — Wednesday. The bill has already passed the Senate.

“This bill will help provide patients with desperately needed financial peace of mind while they wage their battle against cancer,” Perlmutter said in a statement. “It is a common sense, bipartisan solution that helps relieve the financial burden of student loans for young adults receiving active cancer treatment and encourages patients to continue repayment after they are back to full health.”

Perlmutter introduced the bill, called the Defer ment for Active Cancer Treatment Act, with Rep. Ileana RosLehtinen, a Republican from Florida.

The aim of the bill is to help mitigate the financial strains young adults face after being diagnosed with cancer.

Medical expenses coupled with student loan payments can be a “doublewhammy” for students, said Ken McConnellogue, spokesman for the University of Colorado.

“As someone who’s had cancer and been through that treatment myself, I know you need all the energy you can muster to battle that disease,” he said.

Undergoing cancer treatment is not just costly itself, but there are other indirect costs as well, such as housing, transportation, child care and fertility preservation that young adults have to juggle while seeking care, said Kate Houghton, president and chief executive officer of Critical Mass: The Young Adult Cancer Alliance in Washington, D.C.

Critical Mass helped lawmakers write the Deferment for Active Cancer Treatment Act.

The additional expenses cancer patients face can add tens of thousands of dollars on top of the debt they already have with student loans, she said.

“Where young adults get hit isn’t in the typical places where we think,” Houghton said. “It’s not drug prices and payers. It’s all the other stuff.”

The bill would allow cancer patients that are under going treatment to defer federal student loan payments without interest.

Individuals can already temporarily halt student loan payments by receiving a forbearance, but they still have to pay interest, said Marty Somero, director of the office of financial aid at the University of Northern Colorado.

“This is a really good first step and a really good thing for cancer patients, but it would be better if it was expanded out for other medical situations,” he said.