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Posted on March 25th, 2010

Medical School Debt

Many students enter pre-med undergraduate programs and graduate medical school with their eyes set on a goal: a successful and lucrative career in medicine. What many students find, though, is not an open door to financial stability, but a looming debt from their medical school bills. In 2009, the average medical student graduated with over $150,000 in outstanding school bills. Almost 80% of med school graduates carry over $100,000 debt; over half are saddled with over $150,000. Law school graduates have on average $75,000 in debt; MBA graduates have between $75,000 and $95,000. Most PhD graduates have relatively little debt because of assistant programs and residencies.

This debt is an increasingly high hurdle to the med school graduate. Between 1984 and 2004, tuition costs at private medical schools jumped fifty percent; public medical school costs increased by 133 percent! To this astronomical tuition inflation can be added the interest accrued on school loans, increased undergraduate school debt, and the growing number of older graduate students who are providing for families while continuing their education.

The effects of this financial burden are immediately obvious to medical students, but they also affect the public at large. Higher debts motivate many students to pursue specialization in higher income fields of medicine; this trend leads to a decrease in the number of general practitioners and primary care physicians. Also, the combination of intense academic pressure and overwhelming financial pressure can lead to poor mental health among medical school graduates. The depression rate among medical students is twice the national average. Clinical depression is neither admirable nor desirable among the nation's future physicians. It has also been suggested that increased medical school debt inhibits minority students from pursuing careers in medicine, leading to a lack of diversity among health care providers.

There have been several solutions suggested to the problem of growing medical school costs and debt. From tuition caps to federal subsidies to increased scholarships to tax deductions for loan interest, the options are varied. Many of these ideas are being implemented to some degree already. The average medical school debt of $150,000 is a major factor to reckon with. Tuition and costs are rising much more quickly than potential salaries. This is an immediate concern to each medical student, but its effects trickle down to the entire population.

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