Public service loan forgiveness can help fix the shortage of primary care and rural physicians

The medical profession seems caught in a “Catch-22”: The growing cost of medical education is generating crushing levels of debt. This debt, in turn, is contributing to a doctor shortage and discouraging students from filling our growing needs for primary care physicians serving in poor, rural, and other underserved areas.

There is hope, however, as students return to campus. A single solution involving the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program can solve both problems if educators and government can come together and transform debt relief into an instrument for improving health care.

The numbers are stark and dispiriting. Seventy-six percent of. Their average debt is $190,000. Interest can push the repayment total well over $400,000. That is an especially troubling prospect for young doctors who typically begin their careers in low-paying residency programs that generally last three to five years.