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The Texas Medical Association joined the American Medical Association and other medical societies across the country in asking the U.S. Department of Education to reinstate the 20/220 pathway loan repayment program.
The groups say in a letter to federal officials that they should reinstate the program or find "an equivalent funding mechanism for loan deferments so that medical residents continue to have an option to postpone loan payments without facing financial penalties during a crucial time in their training." They add that "helping medical students finance their education and assisting medical students, resident physicians, and young physicians to better manage their high debt burden are top priorities for our organizations." Furthermore, the letter says, "Loan deferment programs like the 20/220 pathway are vital for ensuring that health care professionals represent the diverse makeup of the general population, and are available to communities across the country, particularly those in underserved areas."
TMA and others want the 20/220 pathway restored because the average medical graduate has more than $139,000 in student loan debt and earns an average stipend of $43,266 during residency and fellowship. As a result, many residents and fellows are unable to make payments on their student loans during residency and fellowship. "The high debt burden that many medical graduates face may influence their career choices. Borrowers with high loan debt may be deterred from entering public health service, practicing medicine in underserved areas, starting a career in medical education or research, or practicing primary care medicine," the letter points out. It notes that the United States faces a growing physician shortage and that "complicating student debt burden repayment could further deter students from pursuing a career in medicine, which could adversely affect our nation's access to care in the coming years."
The letter was written as education officials consider a proposed rule that would amend the federal student loan program regulations in accordance with the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. Effective July 1, 2009, medical residents will be eligible for a new income-based repayment program (IBR), which caps loan repayments of participating borrowers at 15 percent of their income that exceeds 150 percent of the poverty line for the borrowers' family size. "Unfortunately," TMA and others wrote, "the IBR does not offer medical residents the option to postpone loan repayment during their initial years of residency. Rather, medical residents wishing to postpone repayment have no alternative other than entering forbearance, during which interest accrues on their entire federal loan portfolio."
The letter says TMA, AMA, and others are "committed to working with you and Congress to take the necessary regulatory and legislative steps to reinstate the 20/220 pathway permanently or provide an equivalent funding mechanism for loan deferment that will enable medical students and residents to better manage their high debt burden during their residency."
Action, Aug. 1, 2008
Last Published: 7/31/2008 Print this page
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