May 12, 2008
How the cost of medical school can affect health care quality
Andrew Herstein writing at theNation.com explains how the cost of medical school affects both patient care and health care access.
According to the article, in 2006 graduates of public medical schools owed a median amount of $120,000 in student debt. Their private school counterparts owed $160,000.
Citing 2004 U.S. Census Bureau statistics Mr. Herstein shows that while minorities make up 30% of the U.S. population only 14% of applicants to schools that grant an M.D are minorities. From theNation.com:
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the primary reason for this discrepancy is that minority students are much more likely to see financing a medical education as an insurmountable problem.
The article continues by showing how race matters with regards to health care providers.
Patients report higher measures of satisfaction and trust when their doctor is of the same race and ethnicity. One study found that race-concordant visits were longer on average and were characterized by more positive physician affect. In addition, minority physicians are more likely than white physicians to practice in geographic areas whose populations face multiple challenges to maintaining good health.
In addition, minority doctors report providing more care for under-served populations.
So what should be done about the low number of minority applicants to medical school? Mr. Herstein offers two possible solutions.
First the U.S. government could work towards reducing the cost of medical school for qualified college graduates. This could be accomplished by increased funding for scholarship programs that reward those who work in under-served areas.
The second possible solution is to provide more money to health professions schools which should increase the number of need based scholarships.
With the rising cost of tuition the article ends with a warning that things could get worse:
If such rapid tuition growth continues, larger and larger numbers of minority students will consider a medical education to be unaffordable. The result would be a workforce that is even less diverse than it is now. Considering the many benefits that a diverse workforce provides, this outcome should be avoided. The federal government has the ability to shape the composition of the physician workforce and ought to do so.
Send news items related to health disparities to ReduceDisparity(AT)case.edu
Posted by David Porter at 08:30 AM
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Category: Health Care; Healthcare; health care access; medical school; medical school debt
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In my college medical care given for free. so we dont afraid about our health fee