Would giving hospitals the same amount for every residency help?
“The distribution of resident training funds also should be reworked,” Dr. Weiner told amednews. “The government spends more to produce a surgeon than it does to train a family physician, because surgeons take longer to train and the government subsidizes each year of their salaries.” Weiner suggests that the government give programs a certain amount for each resident regardless of “whether they train for three years or seven,” noting that “this would create more equity between primary care and subspecialty residency programs.
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I’m a 3rd year med student. I would jump at the opportunity to enter FM, move to a rural location, and setup shop….if I could get some money for my loans. A doc I rotated with got $25K a year loan subsidies for working FM in a small town about 20 years ago. Guess how much I can get thru the national health service corps today…$25K/year. It’s not enough for me. I’d rather take the job in the city. And I’d rather go into Anesthesia to more quickly get rid of my loans.
justin if you know where you want to work, why don’t you talk to the community? they would likely work with you to help you defray costs in a similar fashion. primary care docs are hard to get. don’t be shy, most rural communities are desperate.
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