Report: Medical School Debt Should Not Preclude Primary Care Career

But according to a new report published in The Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, that debt alone should not steer young doctors away from primary care, where their services are now desperately needed.

WBUR's Sacha Pfeiffer spoke with the senior author of that report, John Wiecha, assistant dean for academic affairs and an associate professor of family medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine. Here are some interview highlights:

SP: So you wanted to try to figure out if various levels of med school debt actually are manageable on a primary care salary. What did you find?

JW: By and large, except for the highest levels of debt, with careful financial planning, they actually should be able to pay off their debt, purchase a house at a median house price, and even save some money for eventual retirement.

SP: So even making about $145,000, but owing about $160,000 to $170,000, you can pay for your kids to go to college, have money in retirement, and still pay off your loans?

JW: It looks that way. I will say, though, that about 27 percent of students in private medical schools had debts of $250,000 or more. At that level or above that, we’re really seeing that students need to be very careful about financial planning, and they may have to make some compromises in terms of the practice environment that they’re in...

SP: But can we conclude from your study that if a med school grad is avoiding primary care because he or she is afraid they’ll struggle too much to pay back their student loans, that could be a false alarm, depending on the debt level?

JW: Yeah, I think that’s a fair characterization. But I think we also need to realize that students’ choice of career direction really is responsive to many other factors — not so much education debt or even income expectation. Those are really fairly low down on the list of influences that students report regarding their career choice.

SP: What would you say is the overall message of your study?

JW: I would say to a student that’s graduating from medical school, who’s interested in primary care, I would say it’s very possible. They should look carefully at loan repayment options. There are a number of federal programs that can help them. And I think they should follow their heart.