Johns Hopkins will begin waiving tuition for all students from families earning less than $300,000 a year after it received a $1 billion gift from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
However, as guest commentary writer Sally Pipes contends in The Baltimore Sun, tuition is not the driver of the physician shortage currently facing the U.S healthcare system.
"We're short on physicians because there aren't enough residency slots where they can complete their training," Ms. Pipes writes. "Philanthropists looking to address the physician shortage –– and improve patient access to care –– ought to consider funding additional residencies."
There is currently a federally imposed cap on the number of residency slots awarded each year, which has been in place since 1996. While the cap was lifted slightly in 2020 and 2022, adding 1,000 Medicare-supported slots, it may not be enough to combat the predicted 86,000 physician shortage by 2036.
Ms. Pipes counters recent tuition-waiving donations with University of Texas' Tyler School of Medicine and University of Nevada's Reno School of Medicine, which received $900,000 and $500,000 gifts, respectively, as successful examples of philanthropy dollars actually funding an increase in physicians.
The University of Nevada projects that its new pediatrics residency program, funded by the gift, will increase the number of pediatricians in the surrounding area by 17%.