Greedy America and Healthcare

[tblue37]

8. My daughter went to Georgetown med school. She graduated with $212,000 in debt--all

from med school, because she had a full scholarship for her undergraduate degree.

Since she did two different residencies, by the time she could start paying down her med school debt it had ballooned to $300,000.

Other countries subsidize training for needed professionals like doctors. We force ours to hang overwhelming debt around their necks at the start of their professional life, so they can't afford to buy a house or have kids if they want to pay down that debt.

These professionals therefore really need to make enough money to pay off their debt. At 36, my daughter finally felt she had paid off enough to buy a house with her fiance, but she still owes well over $100,000 on her med school debt, and now she is also carrying a mortgage. She wants kids, but she is working so much to earn enough to finish paying off that debt that she fears she won't be able to spend enough time with her kid if she has one.

And she fears that even if she has one, she won't be able to have another, though she wants two, because she is getting past prime pregnancy age and also because pregnancy, especially at her age, might force her to work less and thus earn less, and she has debt to pay down.