Doctor shortage worsens as student debt rises

Doctor shortage worsens as student debt rises:

"the debt burden on graduates is daunting, especially given that they must spend at least three more years on post-graduate residency training that pays about $44,000 to $45,000 for the first year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

While in their residencies, many future doctors choose to defer their school loan payments, so their arrears grow even larger as they accrue interest, Black said.
That option will be gone, however, beginning in July 2009, when the U.S. Department of Education ends medical school payment deferment -- a move that could further put aspiring doctors in a financial bind, said Chromy, who helped author the resolution.

'We're required to do this residency, but we can't defer,' she said. 'If we're trying to increase the supply of physicians, the answer is not to make it harder to make physicians.'

The resolution estimates that the average monthly payment on debt of about $160,000 starts at $1,400 a month on a 25-year repayment plan -- or about 50 percent of the post-tax income of a resident's salary.

In his two years of medical school at Wayne State, Joseph Khouri has racked up about $140,000 in debt, a figure that includes out-of-state tuition and loans to pay for living expenses.

'I mean, this is ridiculous,' said Khouri, who is from Cleveland. 'Medicine isn't about money and it never was about it for me. But graduating $280,000 in debt is intimidating.'

It could be worse for future medical students at Wayne State Medical School. One report by the medical college association projects debt for graduates could rise to about $750,000 by 2033."

This is the new social contract we have accidentally made. We tell our students to suck it up and pay extraordinary tuition to become doctors. Then we tell them they should be going into primary care, where they would be doing the most good caring for patients, but will never catch up to their peers in income, accumulation of home equity, retirement funds or wealth in general.

The saying that "it's just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor man" comes to mind. While in training, it is just as easy to fall in love with a handsomely reimbursed specialty as it is a poorly reimbursed one.

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