Home Decorating Ideas - Patients Beware: Why High Costs May Forecast a Doctor Drought

(ARA) - With the U.S. healthcare system facing enormous challenges, a new issue is looming on the horizon: How can the nation’s medical schools attract promising young students when the cost of medical education is becoming almost out of reach for many of them?

The decrease in federal funding and the ability to draw on new resources have caused increasing tuition costs and burdens for future physicians who, on average, graduate approximately $104,000 in debt.

Medical school graduates enter their residencies with student debts that are a tremendous hardship for them throughout the repayment period of the loan, and are especially difficult during their three-to-eight years of training in a residency program. When costs of residency training are added, debt can rise to $120,000 or more.

Result: Potential students, feeling discouraged by the prospect of large debt and a less certain future, are reconsidering their plans to attend medical school. The prospect of lowered enrollments at the nation’s medical schools has healthcare experts worried about the very real possibility of physician shortages in the future.

“The increase in average student debt loads and declining availability of scholarship assistance are becoming serious problems,” says Duane Cady, M.D., president of the board of directors of the AMA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the AMA.

That’s a gloomy diagnosis for a mounting problem. Severe debt loads may deter more students from entering primary care or working in underserved areas, which could make access to quality healthcare a problem for many Americans.

The American Medical Association Foundation is engaged in an ongoing effort to address the problem by providing financial assistance to medical students facing spiraling debt loads. Last year, the foundation provided nearly $1 million in total financial assistance for students at 146 schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The foundation also provides small seed grants for students engaged in research projects.

The new $10,000 National Scholars Fund Award, which will be presented for the first time in 2004, is the foundation’s latest offering and largest single medical school scholarship. But more help is needed from other sources.

“We know that the AMA Foundation cannot solve the student debt load problem single-handedly,” explains Dr. Cady.

That is why the AMA is advocating for programs that can benefit medical students. Elements that could help include retaining the student loan consolidation program, repealing the “Single-Holder” rule, mandating full-disclosure of consolidated loan terms and allowing borrowers to refinance their consolidated student loans at a lower interest rate.

For more information about the AMA Foundation’s scholarship and grant programs, visit www.amafoundation.org.

Courtesy of ARA Content