10 Ways to Make Medical School Free

Average medical student debt is about $180,000 and some feel that it creates perverse incentives about specialty career choices. The cost of attending a private medical school in the US can easily exceed $250,000. Tuition alone, for example, at Georgetown is over $50,000 a year.

There are presently 141 accredited MD-granting institutions and 31 accredited DO-granting institutions in the United States. All DO schools are private.

For a few, medical school can be free. For the large majority, though, big tuition bills will come due each year.

Here are some ways to create tuition free state-supported medical schools:

1. Those choosing to go into highly paid specialties would forgo their salaries during training.

2. Consolidate basic science courses into a handful offered online by the best of the rest.

3. Sell medical schools to private equity and use a different business model that has a claim to a part of future earnings.

4. Consolidate and integrate undergraduate and medical school education.

5. Impose a medical manpower tax that pays for tuition but mandates a term of community service within the state following graduation.

6. Create a one-year primary care preparedness experience (we used to call it a one-year rotating medical internship) for graduates of free state-supported schools. After a defined term of required primary care service, recipients could then apply for residencies in an alternative pathway.

7. Create a scholarship fund for tuition-free primary care doctors.

8. Use revenue streams from university-based technology commercialization ventures to support medical student tuition.

9. Identify philanthropreneurs to cover expenses. Should those universities with huge endowments and medical schools still charge tuition?

10. Crowd-fund tuition.

While the numbers of those seeking care continues to escalate, the supply of doctors has not. Free tuition to state-supported medical schools might help address the need.