Archived Study: US spends the most on health care with the worse results (commonwealthfund.org)
submitted ago by TerriChris
Posted by: TerriChris
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Archived on: 2/12/2017 1:51:00 AM
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Archived Study: US spends the most on health care with the worse results (commonwealthfund.org)
submitted ago by TerriChris
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[–] bayesianqueer 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
It's actually not a financially wise move for today's medical students (unless you are the rare student whose parents are wealthy enough to foot the bill).
The average cost of 4 years of public medical school is about $225k, private is about $300k. Add undergrad debt to that and total debt leaving medical school is often >300k. Assuming forbearance during residency and even aggressive payment of the debt in 20 years, at current student loan interest rates, it's over a million dollars.
Now, the average primary care physician makes about $215k annually and doesn't even start making that until they are at least 29 years old (assuming the went directly through undergrad and med school) it's not that great a deal.
If you are interested in making money (and you're reasonably science/math literate, computer science or engineering is a way better gig. You graduate at 22 with a third the debt of medical students, and you start making decent money in your early 20s.
However the cost doesn't drive people away from medical school, but it does drive them away from primary care. The average pay for primary care is $215k, but average pay for non-primary care physicians is just shy of $400k. And if you are graduating with what ultimately will be a million dollars degree, making double the money as a specialist (and having a better professional lifestyle), is incredibility tempting.
So its not the case that we have a doctor shortage, but we do have a primary care shortage. And the way to solve that is make it a financially viable option for talented students to pursue primary care by loan forgiveness programs if students enter and stay in primary care.