I accrued nearly $40K from one year of medical school before I switched to a straight PhD (I was in an MD/PhD program that didn't cover tuition). And that was over 10 years ago. Oh, and I was at Indiana University, a public school (and the only MD school in the state).
My wife, however, did finish her MD (and PhD). She decided to go into a specialty, partially because the salary for general practice physicians (she's a pediatrician) is just too low.
So, yes, medical school costs - public and private - are ridiculously high. Because of this, the number of doctors is just going to decrease. The only ones who are left will be a) those who can afford it, b) those who really want to be doctors - costs be damned. And all of them are going to be overworked. Now, couple that to the fact that GP's don't get paid very much in comparison to specialists, and you have a worse problem.
Summary: the article is right - it doesn't pay to be a doctor.
(Then again, I'm an academic, so I still made a bad choice!)
SUNY Undergrad (in-state) About $22K x 4 = $88K http://sls.downstate.edu/financial_aid/costs/CollegeofMedici...
Total (without any financial aid) $188K (medical) + 88K (undergrad) = $276K
This is approximately the same cost as a private undergraduate education including on-campus living expenses (about $250K). Example: Columbia College at Columbia University is approx $62K per year + travel or $248K total + travel. http://www.college.columbia.edu/bulletin/feesandexpenses.php
Instead of attending pricey private undergrad and then medical school attend public undergrad and public medical school for about the same price.
There should be a study of median debt for those who attend both in-state public undergrad and public medical school vs. those who did not make that choice.
The tuition indicated for Columbia is the maximum one could pay, which is significantly decreased by financial aid depending on need -- presumably much more so than at SUNY. Columbia's financial aid includes no loans and the average aid award is about $40k (of those with need, so presumably about $20k over all students).
In addition to Columbia being considered a much better school than SUNY, for many students it may actually be cheaper to go to Columbia ... if they can get in.
If you want a class of Doctors that don't care about money, have them accumulate moderate debt, and get a nice but not extravagant income. But Huge debt with a just large enough income to pay it off, just makes people who otherwise wouldn't care about cash, start caring about cash.
(This is exacerbated by the fact that many Doc's go straight through and have never had a job until Residency, where they have to pay off the debt - but are not (yet) making enough money to do so. That'll focus your mind on money fast.)
Whether the median is $278K (private) or $207K (public), that's a lot of debt with which to start your residency before starting to practice.
I'd also dispute the "military...if you are not good enough" assertion.
Also, I'm fairly certain that the military (Army?) will pay for your medical school costs, but you still have to go (and be admitted) to a normal medical school.
If you look at it as "getting paid to go to medical school" + "guaranteed employment for x years following medical school" it looks like a pretty sweet gig.
Would it be because the public med schools are incredibly impacted and the private ones are slightly easier, albeit more expensive, to get into?
Any assocation between serving in the military and being "not good enough to attend a public medical school" is offensive and unwarranted.
Residents earn between $45k and $60k a year. While they do work long hours (my wife is a neurosurgical resident, so I am quite familiar with the hours), and are grossly underpaid compared to their skills, comparing a resident's salary to "minimum wage" is absurd.
Many graduating doctors get into big debt because they choose to attend private undergraduate and private medical school. Instead of getting into such huge debt, a fiscally responsible medical student should attend a lower cost, quality public undergraduate school and a public medical school.
For example, in New York State, one could attend one of the SUNY schools or the public part of Cornell (the Agriculture school for instance) undergrad and then SUNY Downstate Medical School where they would get outstanding clinical experience for the approx cost of private undergraduate tuition alone.
It seems odd that Berknanke's son would still be in debt if he had attended both public undergraduate and medical schools and does seem so fiscally prudent on the part of the Fed Chairman and his son.
In addition, IIRC, you can have the military pay for full medical school if you serve for four years as a doctor after you graduate if you are not good enough to get into public medical school.
In summary, for most people who complain of medical school debt in this country, it is really a sign of not being fiscally prudent on their part or of those of their parents.