[syki]

I believe there is a dance between these various quantities. Overall, my claim is that large med school debt does play a role in high doctor salaries. I don’t claim it is the only factor but just that it is a factor. I further claim that if med school was free them doctor salaries wouldn’t have to be quite as high as they are. That is, the same number of people would be aspire to be doctors with med school being free but doctor’s salaries being x% lower.

[s1artibartfast]

>That is, the same number of people would be aspire to be doctors with med school being free but doctor’s salaries being x% lower.

I think the point others are making is that there is already a surplus of people that want to be doctors and a fixed number of a medical degrees in both scenarios.

If doctors already make more than enough to pay off their medical debt, what would change to make them start accepting lower salaries? It seems that the salary is driven by competition between hospitals (demand ) opposed to what doctors are willing to take. I guess it is possible that doctors without school debt would less actively chase higher salaries, so perhaps there is some small impact there.

That said, it seems by far the best solution is still more doctors, with or without school debt.

[syki]

If doctors already make more than enough to pay off their medical debt, what would change to make them start accepting lower salaries..

If med school were free then salary required to live at the required standard would go down since the need to service the debt would no longer be there.

[s1artibartfast]

I think that is the point. What is the "required standard" where doctors refuse more money? I don't think there is one. If doctor can live on 100k a year, they can also live on 500k a year. If you were a doctor, which job would you pick? Hospitals will always compete on salary because there aren't enough doctors to go around, and they don't want to be the one without a doctor.

Sure, some people might settle for a low-ball salary for personal reasons if they don't have debt, but I think the vast majority would follow the salary.