Any residents currently paying back their student loans in residency?
I am thinking of taking advantage of the IBR during residency so I'd only have 7 years left working at a qualifying hospital (assuming this works out), once I get done with residency and then I'd take advantage of the public service loan forgiveness and have $100K forgiven of my loans.
I just started researching into the different payment options and on paper it seems like a decent deal if it goes through. Has anyone had any experience with this?
FYI, no one has ever had their loans forgiven.
And for all the people who say, "Oh, the wording says... blah blah". Do you realize how easy it is for these people to change things? "Oh, it's guaranteed." Haha. Doesn't everyone realize that it says,
"while you are employed full-time by certain public service organizations." Do you know how nonbinding that is? Want to make sure no one gets it? Decide to change the classification of "certain public service organizations." Just by changing that definition and making only a few hospitals in each state qualify, then it's over. That's just one simple idea, the government is much more creative and conniving also.
Unrelated but fun anecdote: So numerous finance managers have explained to me that this program more or less MAKES money for the government. Nearly all people who use it will eventually pay more than their original loan amount prior to the 120th payment. Often much more.
But physicians break the system through the nature of a long period of poor pay with close to 100% being in qualifying jobs (nearly all residencies are in not for profits. Though not all) for those years. Being able to let interest build up and pay a pittance towards it for 3-5-or-7 years means you'll never get near your original loan amount in the handful of years you do pay. And the widespread use by physicians is making this look like something that will end up losing money (so far no one has actually qualified yet)
For physicians the system is broken. So they could potentially redefine hospitals.... But somehow I just really doubt it since it would fly in the face of why the program was created. And no one has discussed in the least any suggestions of modifying those definitions. In sure we could sit around and think up hundreds of doomsday scenarios that are potentially possible in some reality, but none of them have any (even anecdotal) evidence to suggest it's something to be concerned about.
If you all want to discuss potential what if worst case scenarios, I won't stand in your way. It's just one of my pet peeves. I just hate getting paranoid about potential things that are totally possible theoretically, but only theoretically.
Great point. They made the program because they thought no one would be able to capitalize on it!
Exactly. This is how the government thinks. When they created social security, most people were dying around the time they would have to start paying for stuff. That's the whole idea behind these programs. Now that people are using social security for decades, they are realizing it's going bankrupt! This loan program is no different. The people who are training for 8 years and not paying down their balances are making them realize, "Holy crap. We may have to actually start paying lots of money!"
It's not long before they decide to change the terms or be clever about changing how you qualify. This happens all the time. It's a repeat of history.
I would bet a lot of money that what we are calling PSLF will be completely different in 5-10 years. It is possible that they pay for some people for a year or two, but that would be about it. The neurosurgeons are going to clean up on this program (70-80% of their payback will be during residency).
