By: Judge Greg Mathis
Most students graduating from medical school are faced with hundred of thousands of dollars worth of debt. Mandatory post-graduate residencies, lasting about three years, pay around $45,000 per year, hardly enough to pay off the large student loans they had to take out to pay for their education. While in training, doctors can defer these loans, but interest accumulates, and the debt grows.
For these very reasons, many newly minted doctors are choosing not to become primary care or pediatric physicians. While they are the heart of the medical profession, these two specialties are two of the lowest paid. Not an attractive option for a young doctor with nearly $300,000 in debt to repay. Instead, the docs choose to enter higher paying specialty practices, creating a shortage in critical areas of health care. Congress must act now to alleviate some of the debt that doctors choosing to enter into family or pediatric care face before the impending shortage threatens the nation’s already shaky healthcare system.
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