A March 11, 2008 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that the American Association of Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association has written a joint letter asking Congress to reverse the Department of Education’s decision to end a program that has allowed new physician graduates to lower student loans and defer interest on their student-loan payments.

The article states that “in 2007 the average medical student graduated with $140,000 in debt, and the average first-year resident earned less than $45,000, according to the letter. Eliminating the provision, the letter warns, could discourage students from pursuing less-lucrative careers in medical education, research, public health, or primary medicine.”

Give me a break. I borrowed $100,000 to earn a doctorate in healthcare administration (DBA-Healthcare) last September at the age of 57. I teach at a small college in Northern Virginia, with four international campuses, where I earn $50,000 in base salary. I’d like to believe that what I am doing is working with the future healthcare leaders in the U.S. and around the world.

And I am not alone. There are many occupations where students have assumed substantial debt to earn terminal degrees. I personally cannot support carte blanche treatment of physicians who have been and continue to be bulwarks against universal healthcare in the U.S. What an initiative like this does is continue the stereotype that physicians are somehow medieval lords deserving of subservience and special treatment.

Let’s get behind a federal student loan repayment initiative where payment extensions or loan forgiveness would be indexed to a service contract with America. Make loan repayment a function of the degree to which the student debtor is making a social contribution. For doctors, require free clinic work and uncompensated care, for teachers incentivize teaching in low to moderate-income communities, and for graduate MBAs link repayment to helping community-based nonprofits succeed.

Let’s replace the Neanderthal notion that physicians are “entitled” with one where physicians join equally skilled and indebted graduates who direct their time and talent to service to America.

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