Dealing With Medically Underserved Areas

Medical education is already heavily subsidized (tuition does not cover the educational institutions' costs). Some young physicians choose their career paths primarily based on their assessments of how quickly their earnings will pay off their debts. There could be an alternative: provide financial incentives to medical students, interns, residents and fellow to choose the specialties which America needs, where the needs exist, and commit to providing them with free educations if they serve in designated medically underserved areas for a defined period following completion of their training. If the young physician's career objective is to be a Beverly Hills cosmetic plastic surgeon, he or she should receive no subsidy or income guarantee; if he or she will contract to practice plastic surgery in an inner city hospital for seven years, provide a generous subsidy which makes the medical training free and provide a reasonable and adequate income so that the physician can support his or her family. The decisions on need and location cannot be left to the medical profession alone, nor to hospitals, because the medical profession and health institutions will game the system for their advantage.