That was one response to my post “WSJ: How much do rookie doctors make? The latest scorecard”.
I of course cannot speak for all doctors. The MGMA survey reveals a range of median doctor starting salaries; from $132, 500 for a pediatrician to $605,000 for a neurosurgeon. I agree, I would be hard pressed to understand how a person making $605,000 cannot make ends meet even after the deferred gratification required of all medical trainees.
But I do think that a pediatrician and other lower-paid physicians should be paid more than this median $132,500. I also think a lot of medical students agree with that and that’s why nobody wants to go into primary care these days.
Frankly, I don’t blame them.
Higher education is expensive. Many Americans “invest” in higher education by taking out loans. However, student loans, billed to us as good loans, can be a burden. We are now beginning to realize that there is such a thing as too much student loan debt as discussed here and here. The Project on Student Debt, a non-profit advocacy group, says the average college graduate’s debt has increased 50% in the past decade, adjusted for inflation. That is insane!
How much student debt is too much? It appears that if you have to pay more than 10 – 15% of your future earning back to the student loan companies that is too much. Stated otherwise, one should not borrow more than their expected starting salary. The streets are filled with people who went to college believing that alone would raise their future net-worth and now find themselves not only unemployed or underemployed but also saddled with student loan debts that they cannot pay. We are being forced to make lifestyle decisions such as rent or buy a home, how much of a home to buy, where to live, when to get married, when to have children, and how many, with this debt as a burden. That is sad! I feel worse for those who forgo cheaper state schools for expensive Ivy League, élite, or other name-brand schools and now find themselves in this predicament. All for what?
But back to the future doctor facing a future median salary of $132,500. A six-figure-salary. Compared to the median salary of all Americans pegged at $24,325 from the 2006 census (I doubt it’s much higher now), that does sound like an awful lot of money.
But what did said doctor sacrifice to get to that magical six-figure salary? Well, let’s see.
Average US college debt: $24, 000 for private college grad; 11,000 for public college grad
Average US medical school debt: $139,517
Average age of US medical school matriculant: 24 yrs
Therefore average age of US intern: 28
Add 3 – 4 years of pediatrics residency, during which loans have been deferred, our dear 31-32 year old rookie physician with an initial six-figure salary of $132,000 likely has ~ $160,000 PLUS worth of educational loans, who knows how much credit card debt, likely minimal savings, and probably wants to buy a decent car, get married, and have children….oh and yeah, start a retirement fund.
Again, is it any surprise that today’s medical students don’t want to do primary care? Would you want to take a job that is not going to pay you enough to meet your minimum educational debt payments? The doctors that have are the ones whining. They’ve been bamboozled.
In what other arena are people encouraged to over borrow money? Hmm, the housing bubble was one such, and now we are in a mortgage crisis. Is it time for student loans to be re-examined? I think so. And people need to realize that they need to figure out the cost-benefit analysis of a college or graduate school education for themselves. Too many kids out there get a liberal arts degree on credit with no plan at all. None what so ever! How do you graduate from college and not know what you want to do? And then tack on another 1-3 years for a masters degree also on credit hoping that you will find yourself? Or think you know what you want to do and find out that people without the degree from your fancy-named school could do the job you want? I want this “educational debt = good debt” bubble to burst and burst now. It’s all too much!
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