The (Student) Debt Ceiling

How many of you are carrying student debt that is the equivalent of a mortgage on a modest new home in the Central Time Zone?  According to recent data, American medical students graduate with an average of $158,000 in student loans.  Check out this item from The New York Times Well blog for more terrifying med student loan stats.

On Sunday, our Congressional leaders arrived at a deal to raise the debt ceiling, but students in professional schools and graduate programs are going to suffer as a result of this.  The deal cut the subsidy on Stafford loans (so all Stafford loans will be unsubsidized and will accumulate interest while you're in school) and the interest rate cuts for people who make timely loan payments when the loans go into repayment.  Check out this story from CNN Money.
 
Though student loans seem like an issue focused on individuals, it is increasingly becoming a major health policy problem  that is finally garnering the press it deserves. For example, the blog post above from NY Times, The Huffington Post, and a recent article in Academic Medicine which chronicles the history of student loans amongst medical professionals.  This article makes for interesting reading--do we really know how much it costs to educate a medical student?  Is it really to the tune of $60,000 per year?

The prohibitive costs and debt associated with medical schools are affecting the practice of medicine throughout the physician workforce pipeline.  High potential debt and the lack of support for medical students affects the applicant pool for medical school, increasingly making medical school a luxury for the more well-off.  This leads to a lack of diversity amongst the applicant pool and medical professionals in general.

Additionally, I think medical student debt is one of the many causes for the primary care physician shortage.  Students choose higher paying, procedural-based specialties because they pay better and allow physicians to pay off massive amounts of debt more comfortably and in a quicker timeline.  In the Well blog post I mentioned earlier, the author talks about how it took her attending 15 years to pay off his debt.  Do I really want to be paying off my own student debt into my 50's, while trying to save or pay for my own kids' educations?

I recently took a health policy class that has opened my eyes to many of these issues.  Ladies, and you brave gents who read this blog, let's all get educated on these issues.  Big changes are coming for American physicians, and we need to have a voice.