Where is my flashback friday, you ask? Well, I got sidetracked with the financial debacle we've gotten ourselves into over the past four years. You see, I know it sounds great that Randy is graduating with an M.D. degree, $$$Cha-ching$$$. Right?
WRONG!
He still has 4-6 years of specialty training where he will be paid meagerly. We were okay with that and we were comforted in the fact that we would thus qualify for a deferment on our monstrous student loans until after Randy's training. Deferment means that the subsidized portion of our loans will not incur interest during residency (for the average medical student, this is about $30,000 of interest during the residency period. Hefty stuff we're talking about here).
WRONG!
He still has 4-6 years of specialty training where he will be paid meagerly. We were okay with that and we were comforted in the fact that we would thus qualify for a deferment on our monstrous student loans until after Randy's training. Deferment means that the subsidized portion of our loans will not incur interest during residency (for the average medical student, this is about $30,000 of interest during the residency period. Hefty stuff we're talking about here).
Well, thanks to the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (HR2669) that was signed into law effective October 2007, we will no longer qualify to defer our loans during residency. Under this new act, we make too much money and should be able to repay our loans during residency. For the average medical student, this means a payment of $1800/month! We still qualify for forbearance, which means the interest on our subsidized loans will not be suspended. Very generous of them, I know.
In the Fall of 2008, the Burr/Isakson Bill S.2303 will be voted on. This bill will reinstate the Economic Hardship "20/220 pathway" and will help out our fellow medical & dental residents.
The AMA has a web site to make it easy to send a message to your Senators and Representatives and voice your concern.
This affects all current & future medical & dental residents. Please tell your friends and family about this and please write to your representatives. Thank you!
For more info, go here: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/18025.html
5 comments:
I know this is the craziest thing ever. How are we supposed to pay for rent along with the loan payment? Bren came home a little worried about all of this stuff. I need to break open the 4 year file labeled financial aid and get crackin' and figure what the heck is going on here... ug
Wow! I am so out of the loop with all of this stuff!! Here's a dumb question: is this just in Utah, or is this a nation-wide thing? Either way, I'm going to click on those links and research it out some more. Thanks for the info, sister! ;)
Residency does pay well, but I'm so glad we aren't paying back our loans right now. We'd be eating Ramen noodles for all 3 meals and using no electricity just to have money to pay off our loans.
Woah, you sound so informed. I guess I would be too if I was dealing with the thought of paying that much money each month. Yikes. Good luck! Hope that bill passes.
So, you can't even apply for economic hardship (or maybe you exhausted that option already)? Well, it sounds pretty lame, I hope they reinstate the options so that they'll be available to everyone.
We didn't get any help either and are now paying back loans on our meager income (although we had a MUCH smaller amount of debt from grad school).
I totally hear you Nancy. We are also trying to figure out what to do about it- and on top of it- my own loans are due now too. My loans are so paltry compared to the Med school ones- but and extra payment of $72 a month is tough! We'll cross our fingers for a change.
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