August 2001

Doctors Who Can't Pay Student
Loan Debt May Lose Licenses

Brownsville, Texas - As a chiropractor in his mid-40s, one Texas doctor expected to have it all by now: a big house, a luxury car and a thriving personal practice. Instead, he has debt that dates to his schooling 12 years ago and seems to multiply by the minute.

What started as three sets of federal loans totaling about $85,000 is now more than $200,000. It's an albatross the back doctor has tried not to think about. He says he pays about $800 a month, and it's still not enough.

“I don’t know, maybe they'll put me in jail,” he said. “What can they do, shoot me? The worst they can do is take away my license.”

In Texas, that is a possibility now.

Saying he was shocked more than 153 Texans owe taxpayers more than $15 million on federal student loans, Rep. Roberto Gutierrez, D-McAllen, sponsored legislation to suspend the occupational licenses of chiropractors, dentists, podiatrists and medical doctors who are delinquent. Governor Rick Perry signed the bill into law in June.

In Texas, individuals who default on state-sponsored professional or occupational school loans already risked losing their licenses. The new law broadens the program to include federal loans.

It's up to individual states to enact such measures, said Kay Garvey of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, which administers the Health Education Assistance Loan guarantee program. Texas, New York and Maryland have enacted such laws.

As of May, doctors across the nation owed HEAL $166 million. That's only one of the programs established by the federal government to help students pay for medical, dental, podiatry or chiropractic schooling. The average loan default is more than $100,000.

“This is simply not fair to an individual who has aspirations of attending medical school but cannot get an adequate government student loan because someone else has failed to meet their commitment,” Rep. Gutierrez said.

Source: Associated Press

Industry News from:
Chiropractic News from: