Doctors who graduate without loans have more leverage when deciding their next position. They can immediately go for research or volunteer work that otherwise wouldn’t recoup their costs.
My wife is a physician, and of the friends we made when she was in medical school, only one went to serve underserved populations. A big part of the reason he did so was because they would pay off his loans!
So maybe this will actually lose an effective lever at getting doctors to serve those populations?
I don't think money is entirely the reason that doctors don't serve underserved populations. Many states with underserved populations like Missouri already pay more due to supply shortages [1].
The reality is doctors have the ability to practice anywhere and tend to choose desirable places to live like NYC, LA, etc because they are humans with wants and needs, too. Anecdotally, living in NYC, many doctors and dentists tell me they could make more elsewhere, but they love living in the city.
Kinda, the big thing is residency which pays peanuts..
But there are tons of programs that will pay off your medical student loans if you go work in an undeserved area. Some states offer free tuition if you promise to work in that state for a few years after. The hope with that is that the person will establish roots and not leave.
Not to mention the 10 year Federal forgiveness for working in a qualified institution (aka nonprofit hospital/academic)
> Not to mention the 10 year Federal forgiveness for working in a qualified institution (aka nonprofit hospital/academic)
Public Service Loan Forgiveness requires 10 years of making student loan payments.
> Some states offer free tuition if you promise to work in that state for a few years after.
for example, the Georgia program offers up to $25k per year for up to 4 years max [1]. It requires application and takes into account health outcomes, specialty, debt, etc so it seems its not automatic acceptance. With an average medical school debt of over $200k this is not free tuition.
> They can immediately go for research or volunteer work that otherwise wouldn’t recoup their costs
So why not structure it so the tuition is completely forgiven if someone does this rather unconditionally free?
I don't see why someone who goes to this medical school, only to become a cosmetic surgeon who ultimately makes millions a year doing discretionary procedures should have free tuition.
There seems to be some shift going on in society. Like we've acknowledged a world with "haves" and "have nots" is unavoidable, so we might as well just focus on diversifying the "haves" and give everyone an equal shot at winning the lottery.
I guess that's better, but it's a sad thing to settle for.
They don't have to though. It would have been nice if they did something like it's free if you go work in an inner city/rural area/volunteer/etc etc but if you go into plastic surgery in Beverly Hills we're going to ask you to repay your tuition
