The high loan burden associated with medical school can discourage students from underrepresented minority groups or lower-income families from pursuing a career as a physician. This creates a ripple effect of widening health care disparities that disproportionately affect the accessibility of primary care physicians in underserved areas.
Adjusted for inflation, the average medical student graduated in 2014 with a loan burden 3.5 times greater than a medical student in 1978. By 2014, the average loan burden was over $170,000.
Higher interest rates and unsubsidized loans for graduate students mean that they pay off more per dollar owed than undergraduate students. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates that, accounting for interest under the Pay As You Earn repayment program, a student with $180,000 in loan burdens could pay almost $380,000 in total repayment. During a three-year residency, the AAMC estimates that total repayment to reach nearly $450,000. This amount increases further if a student pursues a specialty care field.
Those kinds of figures may be enough to intimidate any bright student considering a career in medicine. But students in ethnic and racial minority groups that are underrepresented in medicine, and those from lower-income families, can be particularly daunted by the prospect of six-figure loan burdens. According to the most recent AAMC report, 18.2 percent of black high-school sophomores said they aspired to apply to medical school, but only 6.7 percent actually applied. For Hispanic high-school sophomores, 24.4 percent said they wanted to go to medical school but only 6.8 percent applied.
VIDEO: Student Loan Burden & Patient Health Disparities
According to 2014 AAMC data, while 13 percent of the U.S. population was black, they only made up 4.1 percent of the physician workforce. Hispanics accounted for 18 percent of Americans, but only 4.4 percent of the physician workforce. This in turn likely contributes to the lack of physicians making direct efforts to serve these communities. According to research published in JAMA, despite making up less than 30 percent of the physician workforce in 2013, physicians from underserved groups are significantly more likely to see nonwhite patients, and “nonwhite physicians cared for 53.5 percent of minority and 70.4 percent of non-English-speaking patients.”
Additionally, the cost of medical school likely deters applicants from lower-income rural communities as well. This could contribute to the fact that while 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas, only 10 percent of physicians practice where people in rural communities can access them. With a shortage of about 4,000 primary care physicians, 77 percent of rural U.S. counties are designated as health professional shortage areas.
For those students who do apply and graduate from medical school, the high amount of loan burdens they accumulate can mean that they are much more likely to choose a higher-paying specialty field rather than primary care. This higher income allows the students to pay off their loan burdens more quickly after residency. As a result, the AAMC predicts that by 2025 the U.S. will see a shortfall of up to 35,600 primary care physicians.
The need to pay off medical-school loan burdens is also likely to cause physicians to pursue practice in more affluent areas, further widening the gap between lower-income populations and access to available physicians. A lack of access to primary care physicians disproportionately affects lower-income patients. This makes it more difficult for them to seek preventive care and treatment and can increase the costs for care downstream.
In honor of Minority Health Month, follow the AMA Residents and Fellows Section Facebook page to learn more about the unseen impact of medical student loan burdens and their link to health disparities.
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