This must have left a sour taste in those physicians' mouths who enrolled in the program or were considering such programs. Perhaps if more public support was there, there would be funds available for this to become a viable option. On a separate note, however, I was quite interested by what he had to say on the future of the profession of doctors, especially those working for HMOs. More and more women are becoming doctors every day, but the question of childbearing during medical school, residency, or afterwards is often avoided. This option is certainly a more viable one for a working mom raising kids, though it would still be quite hard for a woman to have a child during residency.
Men can become fathers during that time, however.
This problem is certainly broader in nature than just the field of medicine, women working in business often face the same choices. I was told that the doctors who don't get support actually went to these areas assuming they would get their loans repayed but then were not accepted to the program. They were never promised loans that weren't recieved, or atleast that is what I heard. The biggest problem with the program, and why it has dwindled, is that not a lot of doctors stay in their placements past their commitment, which was the hope when the bill was originally passed. I also wanted to talk a bit about the Dartmouth Atlas.