09-27-2011, 03:06 PM
(09-27-2011, 01:19 PM)kandrathe Wrote: So, here is an idea. Let's treat medicine like the peace corps. If you join the peace corps, or Americorps and serve for 4 years after college, they pay off 70% of Perkins student loans. Let's do the same for doctors and nurses. Create a health corps, pay them a living wage, and send fresh doctors and nurses into places in the US that need them. Give grants to colleges to create or expand their medical programs.
Either you pay them more than the market rate (either with salary, or by forgiving loans, which is just money coming out a different chute), in which case you save no money, or you pay them less, in which case, they'll just go straight into private practice because it pays better.
Unless, of course, you made it mandatory. THAT would save some money, but it would also restrict the number of applicants to med school, since graduation would mean 4 years of what I would see as public service, but some might see as indenture...
-Jester