Johns Hopkins Med School is now FREE! Is that a good idea? Bloomberg's 1 billion donation 

There’s a bit of narcissism here, donate to a medical school & your name is forever remembered on a plaque or even a building. Donate to a non for profit that builds wells in 3rd world countries & no one knows.

💛Well said. When we see families who are homeless and living in Vans they're the ones that need that billion dollars

The AMA will make sure to keep doctors in short supply to keep wages high. They are a Union whether they want to admit it or not. It’s all about money. The patient doesn’t matter.

The mountain of prior auths, phone calls, and general busy work is what scares me away from primary care.

Solving a problem that didn't exist.

Prasad needs to lead world health organization. You are a brilliant health care socioeconomist..

YES!! Help TRADE SCHOOLS .... we need trade schools .... and people to gain trade expertise! Keep sharing your thoughts on these important topics Vinay.

Donation to paramedic training- Veterinary Technology training-etc. Nursing school.....support fields. The people who make an incredibly low percentage but require higher education to work in fields that support these high dollar earners.

a really astute economic critique. nice vinay, i've always been here for your good sense healthcare commentary, but your additional economic acumen is a pleasant surprise.

No investment = no commitment.

Pretty common for lawyers to scale back their careers (even to the point of not being lawyers at all) once their loans are paid off. If anything this donation will reduce the number of PCPs early in their careers because the people who find the job sucks won't have the cash motivation to continue.

Need more big pharma doctors.

BTW I can mention a story about someone who screwed up so badly they got kicked out of medicine. That's Debbi Thomas of Olympic ice skating fame. She was an orthopedic surgeon. Unfortunately she developed a wicked drug habit. She's never going to get to practice again after that.

Free medical school is a good idea if students enter based on merit and not other criteria. Tuition is not the primary revenue for medical schools or any other university. Universities' endowments are enormous.

Although Bloomberg was a competent mayor-manager of New York City, he blew $1 billion on an extension of the No 7 subway line to Hudson Yards. Better to have extended it directly to New Jersey. Would have served more riders.

How about a billion dollars for homeless veterans

Very sensible and valid points prof. Prasad. People who donate that much money sometimes, if not usually, don't think it over well or aim to maximize social acceptance, agendas or self-gratification. It's a corrupt world even in charity.

I think you are entirly forgetting the fact that the reason that this is a case of the rich helping the rich is the cost of entry in the first place. Most poor kids can’t afford the cost to entry. This helps to adjust for that. And so many physicians feel the need to not volunteer or go into high paying fields specifically because of their massive loans. This take is one from privilege it seems. You make some good points but they’re far too broad and sound more like talking points.

Free trade schools and community colleges sound like a better choice.

Free for RN's that want to become APRN's which can work on their own in some states. These are the future for primary care!!

I'm a computer programmer by trade. I've been volunteering in EMS for about a decade now. I've thought about going to medical school, but realized that it would be a financial loss, even if I got to go for free. The opportunity cost of losing my professional income would take me 12 years to recoup, assuming I went into EM. Doctors manage to somehow be both overpaid and underpaid at the same time.

if Bloomberg wants to make a better difference in the field of medicine, donate to med schools to fund training grants for Ph.D. students, post-docs, and early career Ph.D.s working in academia, especially early career Ph.D.s. I work in the Seattle area as a Ph.D. with 30+ years of experience and I make less than someone two years out of undergraduate working in tech. I've seen many Ph.D.s leave the medical research field altogether due to lack of research funding. M.D.s in research usually would moonlight in the ER when funds got low. M.D.s can always fall back on clinical work. There is no safety net for Ph.D.s and yet, it's 4 years of undergraduate, 5+ years of graduate, 5 years of post-doc. Finding a job after post-doc is a bit like winning the lottery.

Vinay - you re brilliant . I laughed so hard at the end - yeh can't fire anyone and don't even need to show up

What about the families that cannot afford medical school? Or cannot co sign on a loan that large....isn't this supposed to help their kids? I grew up on welfare, until my dad got a trade, then we didn't qualify for much on the Fafsa. Did not end up getting a college degree although I graduated 6th in my class of about 200. Maybe had this been offered to me, I would have taken it. I'm happy with where God led my life, but I do have regret of not trying harder to find scholarships etc.

Love the sensible medicine view of VP!❤️

"The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils"...The Bible What could possibly change by injecting huge amounts of cash. '*rolls eyes*'

Free education in Sri Lanka has allowed people from any background get into medical school if they perform extremely well in their advanced levels. It has done good for our country

I know a handful of smart kids who no longer want to finish medical or nursing school. Some dropped out already. Some complied w COVID mandates to remain enrolled, but now they regret it. The whole COVID debacle doesn’t sit well with them, but they aren’t old enough to know just how bad it was. Prior to COVID, becoming a doctor was their childhood dream- following in their parents & grandparents footsteps. Now they are ready to drop out, but don’t know what to do next. And there is going to be a lot of family shame/disappointment from on high.

would you ever give your thoughts (whatever they may be) on RFK Jr? would love to watch!

They should do this to vet schools (yes im a vet 🤣), but seriously, same debt burden but we make a fraction of what MD's make. I graduated in 2011 with 120k in debt (very low even at that time, now people have 4-5x that in debt), and my first job was around 60k salary. Almost no one goes into vetmed to make money. The corporate take-over of our profession makes people think otherwise unfortunately.

There's something that I think Vinay could have mentioned but I think this would actually have a good chance of creating less doctors. So I'm looking at the economics like this. Suppose you're a new medical school grad. You've actually become jaded in your clinical years. Maybe you find that working with sick people isn't for you since they're often not in the greatest of moods. Or maybe you're cynical and you think a lot of patients are sick because they didn't take care of themselves. (They're overweight, don't exercise, don't eat right, etc. All problems that only they can really fix but they're not going to.) Now you graduate but suppose you don't have that loans. There's nothing pressuring you to go on to be a practicing physician and you drop out to go do something else. Doctors don't do that now because they need to pay off the loans so there's a huge financial penalty for going off and doing something else than there is for sticking to the path because it became difficult and not as rewarding as you had hoped. Another related problem I'd see if what if you were willing to become a physician but only if you got the residency (Specialty) that you wanted. You might actually see people leave after graduating because they wanted to become a dermatologist because of the work life balance and if they couldn't get that they'd just walk away. (Anybody that has successfully completed medical school would be a benefit to any company since they've demonstrated extreme ability to put up with stress and learn and excel.

Great video! I agree that the money should go elsewhere. My vote is to fund trade schools. There are shortages in fields like HVAC that need to be solved. Plus, way more people would qualify for a trade vs medicine. That's not a knock against anyone, heck there's no way I could make it to/through medical school! But this way a lot more people could be helped out to get good jobs that pay well so they can help themselves instead of relying on the government while still living in poverty.

It's also worth asking what kind of dr do you want. Someone with the determination to work through college, or a party animal that didn't show up 75% of classes which has been happening for a while, especially if mom and dad have money.

Great! Now there is an enormous incentive to get in there at almost any cost! This will totally NOT open up the admission process to corruption and will ABSOLUTELY NOT water down the quality of medical students.

I'd have been excited if they'd announced they would train more doctors.

Post-covid, we need doctors who can treat nerve damage. How about some remedial classes so doctors can prescribe opiates without getting patients addicted?

Gratz, you just realized how our whole society works, it takes money to make money. Even in places that claim to hate our system it takes money to make money that apparently is the human condition.

Fund MD-PhD programs instead, to give medical students an actual doctoral education. 😂

Mmm … but if you feel passionately about mapping the human genome you should find that. Of course a billion still goes far enough that one could fund human genome, food for Vinnie, and digging wells in Africa (my choice)

liking you more everyday Dr.

If the billion dollars were used to increase the number of MDs it would help. Keeping the supply of doctors tight will keep medical costs high.

This was a very interesting take! Considering the earning potential of doctors and their ability to get out of student loan debt much easier than other professions, I withdraw my previous approval of free med school 😂.

Yassss Queen. I fecken love your channel ❤

I heard a caller on Dave Ramsey. He was a former med student with 500k in student loans but didn’t pass the med board and now cannot use the education towards anything else. The 4 years were wasted. He was working as a HS biology teacher. He would have benefitted from having med school for free. 😂 It’s sad that 4 years of doctoral education would not transfer to anything else in the medical profession. Do med schools vet students very well if they passed this poor guy along and at the end of the road, he was unable to become a MD? The school didn’t care. They got their pot of gold.

There are not enough primary care specialists for a reason other than financial incentives -- too many people have preventable chronic disease that is poorly addressed by practitioners in almost every specialty in our healthcare system. Advanced technologies and exotic drugs are easy, but accurate and effective education that deals with the whole person. . . this is not possible.

souds wonderful. as far as things go. _JC

I’d had the grades and the mcat score to go but there was no way I could afford to pay my bills and eat during it.

It's 100% narcissism. You're right about how to donate money if you're actually trying to maximize impact. It's irresponsible to donate to a university, who will use your donation in the least effective way imaginable, when it costs $5000 to save on life with measures like anti-malaria medications.

Super informative as always, people that are from this world don't understand it

I think it’s a good idea. My ex husband graduated in 1982 from medical school. He had 17K ( about 55K in today’s money) in loans to pay back. He was able to pause paying back his loans through two residencies. Today that same degree ( University of Pennsylvania undergrad and Hopkins medical school) would be about 10X the same amount. Back in 1990 when we started paying off his loans, he was making a good income and we could handle his loans while starting a family and buying a house. He didn’t have to do a side job or pull per diem shifts while working full time as a doctor. I worked through our marriage as a nurse, mostly night shift, I was struck by how by the 2000’s our unit was covered every third or fourth night by a Fellow or even an Attending! These guys and gals were still paying off loans!!

Subsiding future millionaires. Good job!!!

I hear you and largely agree, but he can do what he wants with his own money.

My sister, a medical instructor at a big hospital in Houston, had a 3rd year medical student kicked out of medical school for cheating. But that was about 15 years ago. Today he probably would be celebrated.

Amazing conversation. Please do a podcast on dermatology practices without evidence.

i do think free BA should be available. that would force colleges to up the quality of education and reduce the cost.

all valid points. _JC

Apparently almost all US allopathic medical students are from high socioeconomic status so the idea of scholarships for those truly from diverse ie low socioeconomic background is interesting

Why do you see Harvard and Stanford (at 5:10) as so clearly preferable to Johns Hopkins?

For the first time, I would totally disagree with you. Free medical will bring in more competition, so you get the best students studying medicine.

Medical school content should already be free.

Imagine how much more good could be done by giving a billion dollars to a bunch of trade schools to incentivize more skilled tradespeople.

Not everyone should go to college. Doubly so for medical school.

Mayo has had a free program since the 90s

You'll say this and then someone will invariably pop up and tell you, "When you donate your billion dollars, you can decide who you want it to go to."

Maybe their salaries should be reduced or force them into primary medicine. Too many specialists.

haha love you… “trick you.. I mean persuade you” 😂 exactly

Oh, Vinay: You missed the point AGAIN. You missed what Bloomberg and Johns Hopkins did in tandem during the "pandemic." This is clearly a kickback. It's criminal behavior.

The older I grow up the more I see the truth and reality and cynicism in the world.

My dad went to free medical school and paid for it by working as a public health visiting doc in Detroit. It was great and he was a great doctor. Your take is not. He was not ever rich.

Would you mind just running for a high office please. With you and Josh Hawley at the helm for 8yrs, this country may actually shape up a bit. Americans might not be so god-damned obese and proud of it. Just think of the literal tens of millions of lives you could save. You could counter the life loss of COVID. It would be such a great future. Instead we get to choose between a crook and a puppet 😢

Vinay has clearly never practiced private primary care in rural America

This is off topic...I am wondering why we still include the strain B in the flu shot ...it seems like it has been eradicated. Why not include more strains of type A...that is what most people seem to get each year. Could you please enlighten me...or someone on this thread? Thanks

I'm going to partially disagree with you on this one. There are many people who could benefit from free medical school. There are other Ben Carsons out there. Do I think it should come with restrictions like being a primary care doctor in a rural or lower income area? Absolutely! I can tell you that where I live there is a dearth of primary care physicians where I live.

They might have foreign applicants that get student visas.

If this goes to the best candidates, there is no problem. If it goes to DEI students, it will exacerbate the already decreasing levels of care.

Why Dr. Prasad, you sound like a conservative. I’m an old lady and have seen many people come to this basic realization and find themselves voting R in elections. Remember, you don’t have to *like* the candidate. It’s not Tinder.

There already is "free" medical school through the armed services. They not only have their own schools but also have scholarships to private sector schools on top of that. They wave a lot of the requirements for joining the services. Instead of being burdened with loans, their is a 10 year service requirement. One is still under 40 if they decide to leave and go into private practice with no debt.

Honestly after covid.... I don't want to listen to any doctors about anything ever again. The AI does better in it's first generation and doesnt go golfing in the Bahamas while we fail to recover.

“If something is free, you're the product”, I guess it's what you referred to, siphoning off qualified applicants from other medical schools to bolster their own position in school standings.

I'd recommend medical schools implement an income-based repayment plan after graduation, say 10% of income for 10 years after graduation. Graduates would repay based on how lucrative their specialties are.

Half the money to med school and half the money to trade schools....... ?

0:22 Freudian slip? 🤔😏 (note, phrase begins more like at 0:20)

When will you be doing a video about the harms of Lipid Nano Particles in the mRNA shots? I'm surprised you haven't studied the chaos they do in the body (they don't stay in the injection site)

Caution caution caution Yes

Yup, I definitely want a DEI neurosurgeon working on me.

There is a reason you don't have a billion dollars to donate, and it is made clear in this video. No one has ever made a billion dollars by helping people and _not_ getting something in return. That is not you, nor anyone with any empathy.

Donating to women and women's health research would be better than ones providing food more generally.

It would be great if some billionaires in uk could provide hospitals money to pay medical education debt, if they stay in nhs for 5 years???? Nurses are low paid and have debts need help!!!

Nothing is free.

Keeping doctors in debt makes us too weak to advocate for patients. This is a terrible take. Vinay, Have a couple kids while trying to live in San Francisco then get back to me about how wealthy doctors are.

The main problem is that the price of medical is a total scam. In 3rd year clerkships students are paying $40-60k to work at what is effectively an internship. Imagine if students in any other profession had to pay that at their internships, instead of *being paid* that amount. 4th year is more of the same, except students spend the majority of the year just taking a break before they start residency. How are they costing the medical school $60k while working at a hospital or on vacation? Even the first two instructional years aren't much better. Most students at most institutions agree that almost all of the instructional content they are given by zero-effort professors is worthless, and online resources and Anki decks are far more useful. What costs $60k per student? Anatomy lab? Then in residency med students become indentured servants, working near minimum wage at 80+ hours per week. They cannot just quit or demand better wages because without residency they would be left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with no doctor's salary to pay it off with. While billion-dollar donations to medical schools just padding the pockets of administration, at least it puts more students in the position to stand up to the abusive system that is residency.

So what if you went to med school and didn’t get into residency. What happens then?

U.S. News & World Report still exists??? HOW??? WHY??? Who still has subscriptions to magazines that cover the "news" from the previous week? Y'all need to get y'all's grandparents in check.

Free medical school for all.... or just for those who fit a diversity profile?

Isn’t Peter Singer that guy who thinks you should be able to kill your baby for a few weeks after it’s born? If that’s the same guy, maybe we should find someone else’s views to consider.

In public universities across most of the world, including medical schools (e.g., Germany and Mexico), education is free. Why not in the United States?

This makes sense only if taxpayers enjoy universal healthcare. More primary doctors would be needed to keep costs down.

I wonder if to accept the free medical schooling you have to be an advocate for mRNA vaccines? It's not a 1 Billion donation, that will be a tax write-off too

Is lung cancer decreasing with fewer smokers? No? Funny huh.

This is such a silly argument. Bloomberg also gave a billion to Hopkins undergrad making that free. It’s also income based so it’s literally raising people up that couldn’t otherwise afford it