Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will be joined by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Monday to speak with students at the University of Vermont College of Medicine about careers with the VA.
A new federal law has drawn billions of dollars in funding into the VA to support increase residency slots at its hospitals and provide debt assistance to physicians.
In fiscal year 2013 there were 40,420 medical resident positions, according to a news release for the event. The law requires the VA to increase the number of graduate medical education residency slots by up to 1,500 over a five-year period.
The VA’s Education Debt Reduction Program now offers$120,000 in debt assistance, double what it had been previously authorized to provide. The law also allows the VA to pay medical professionals’ student loan lenders directly rather than reimbursing the employee once a payment is made.
Doctors graduate from medical school with an average of $170,000 in student debt, and 86 percent graduate with some amount of debt, according to figures from 2013 compiled by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The report says that 38 percent will seek some form of loan forgiveness or repayment program.
Sanders and McDonald will be joined by UVM President Tom Sullivan and College of Medicine Dean Frederick C. Morin III, as well as several representatives from the White River Junction VA.
Medical and health science leaders, students and medical residents are encouraged to attend.
The event will take place at noon in Carpenter Auditorium at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Sanders and McDonald will appear later Monday at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.
