AAMC Launches Effort to Address Rising Costs of U.S. Medical Education
New Report Examines Tuition/Debt Increases Over Past Two Decades
For Immediate Release Press Release
Contact: Retha Sherrod
202-828-0975
[email protected]
Washington, D.C., April 26, 2004 - Responding to student concerns, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) today announced a new effort to address significant increases in medical school tuition and student debt over the past 20 years. The initiative includes a newly released AAMC report on "Medical School Tuition and Young Physician Indebtedness," and the establishment of an association committee that will explore potential ways to reduce medical education costs and enhance the ability of graduates to repay debt during residency and early practice.
The AAMC's new "Working Group on Student Educational Costs and Debt" will include financial aid officers, student affairs officers, students, residents and a medical economist. Deborah Powell, M.D., Dean and Assistant Vice President for Clinical Affairs of the University of Minnesota Medical School, will chair the group, which will meet three times over the summer to analyze the data from the report and then make recommendations to the AAMC.
"We must make a concerted effort to ensure that medical education is within reach of all qualified students," said AAMC President, Jordan J. Cohen, M.D. "Otherwise, student debt may become unmanageable if expenses continue to rise and physicians' incomes remain flat."
According to the report, medical education debt is 4.5 times as high in 2003 as it was in 1984, while average tuition and fees is 2.7 times as high in private medical schools and 3.8 times as high in public medical schools. In 2003, graduates of private medical schools had incurred a median debt of $135,000, while the median amount of debt for graduates of public medical schools was $100,000. By contrast, in 1984, private medical school students graduated with a median debt of $27,000, and public medical school graduates had a median debt of $22,000.
While indebtedness among graduating medical students has increased, loans are readily available and several means have been developed for indebted medical school graduates to ease the repayment burden, according to the report. For example, debt consolidation allows borrowers to combine all federal loans into one package at a blended rate of interest and to stretch out payments for up to 30 years. Another alternative is service-related loan forgiveness programs like the National Health Service Corps.
The report also notes that despite the increases in tuition and debt, a career in medicine remains an excellent investment, with physicians still earning higher incomes than most other professions. In recent years, however, physician incomes have increased only slowly and have declined slightly in constant dollars.
Although it
concludes that loan repayment is not yet a serious problem for most physicians, the AAMC report cautions that continuing increases in tuition and fees may eventually hinder the recruitment of a diverse and well-qualified class of students.
A copy of the complete report, "Medical School Tuition and Young Physician Indebtedness," can be found on AAMC's Web site at (
http://www.aamc.org/publications).
