The trend took off between 2018 and 2022, when 10 schools announced plans to make tuition cuts. Among them are New York University, which offers free medical school for all students. In 2019, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scaton, Pa., debuted a scholars program to cover tuition and living assistance for students who commit to working within primary care at the health system for at least four years upon graduation.
Fifteen years ago, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University rolled out free tuition for all accepted students. Every year, the school receives about 2,000 applicants to apply for the slots.
The average medical student graduates with more than $200,000 in debt, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, which also projects the U.S. could be short up to 48,000 primary care physicians and 77,100 other specialty physicians by 2034. Reducing the debt burden has been cited as a critical factor in mitigating the shortage, particularly in rural and underserved areas, where physicians are more likely to leave in favor of higher-paying positions in larger cities.
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