On February 11,the Washington Post published an article about the United States’ prospective shortage of primary care physicians. It rightly pointed out that medical students graduate with large amounts of student loan debt, and as a consequence, they tend to specialize early in their careers because they can earn a higher income for the same cost of education.
The article made two important errors: First, it failed to mention that since July 2009 university graduates with federal student loans can put those loans into the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan, which today caps monthly payments at 10 percent of the borrower’s discretionary income for 20 years, after which the loan is canceled and the debtor must pay income tax on the forgiven sum. While IBR is a decent idea for encouraging doctors to opt for primary care positions as opposed to higher-paying specialties, it’s a savior for law school graduates who are not so fortunate to enter a field where there are more jobs than there are graduates to fill them.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
