Robert Berry: “ensuring health care, including physical therapy services, is available to those who need it most is vital to our…”

“ensuring health care, including physical therapy services, is available to those who need it most is vital to our Nation. I support the Sestak amendment to H.R. 4137, The College Opportunity and Affordability Act, which would add physical therapists to the ``national need'' section of this legislation so that they may qualify for student loan forgiveness. As a lead sponsor of the Physical Therapist Student Loan Repayment Eligibility Act, H.R. 1134, I understand the student loan debt challenges faced by physical therapists, who along with nursing, are currently the only health care profession listed in shortage on the Department of Labor's Schedule A classification. I am joined on H.R. 1134 by Representative Jo Ann Emerson and 113 bipartisan cosponsors who support adding physical therapists who agree to practice in rural and underserved areas to the list of providers eligible to participate in the National Health Service Corps Student Loan Repayment Program. The Sestak amendment, while it does not address access to care for every patient in rural and urban underserved areas, would help begin to address this need by granting student loan forgiveness to physical therapists who care for children, adolescents or veterans.”