Mark Cuban: Make Med School Free To Get the "Best of the Best”

The US is facing a worsening physician shortage, and Mark Cuban believes that eliminating med school tuition could help solve the problem. The self-made billionaire, No. 1 "Shark," and Cost Plus Drugs CEO advocated for free med school on a recent episode of the How I Doctor podcast, hosted by Offcall cofounder Dr. Graham Walker:

“Would it be worth it so that we can expand — not only expand, but make med school free? So you truly get the best of the best as opposed to the best of the people who can either afford it or are willing to take on the debt? If you put me in charge, I’m like, $24 billion is nothing, but it changes the dynamics considerably to improve the quality of care.”

Right now, as Mark notes, there are about 900,000 licensed physicians in the US, and not all of them practice.

Mark does some quick, back-of-the-envelope math and estimates that there are about 10,000 med students per class, nationally, and that it would cost the US about $24 billion a year to make med school entirely free. That might seem like a lot, but it’s a tiny fraction of the nearly $5 trillion spent annually on healthcare. Mark suggests we could double the number of med students through some combination of opening new schools and expanding class sizes at existing ones. The cost of educating and training 20,0000 vs. 10,000 med students, he says, “isn’t dramatic relative to the value, or relative to the overall cost of healthcare.”

While physicians are in short supply across the board, primary care doctors are especially scarce. Part of the issue is burnout, which has led to increased rates of early retirement and other forms of attrition from primary care. But we’re also seeing fewer med students go into primary care in the first place. They’re choosing higher-paying specialties instead, and rising student debt is one of the main reasons.

Of course, the price tag for med school isn’t singlehandedly fueling the physician shortage. The capped number of residency spots creates another supply constraint, to name another contributing factor. But it’s hard to deny that the staggering cost of a medical degree plays a role in determining who becomes a doctor. If we remove or lessen this barrier, it’s reasonable to think more people — and perhaps a more diverse group of people — would pursue careers in medicine.

Some medical schools have already eliminated tuition for all or most students. These include Case Western, Albert Einstein, NYU, and Johns Hopkins. After NYU got rid of tuition in 2018, applications increased 47% overall and 102% for students from underrepresented groups.

Want to learn more about the debate over med school tuition? Here’s a reading list to get started:

• Can Medical Schools Funnel More Doctors Into the Primary Care Pipeline? [KFF Health News]
• Will free medical school diversify the physician workforce? [Inside HigherEd]
• Mike Bloomberg’s $1B gift to Johns Hopkins will make med school free for most students – a philanthropy expert explains why that matters [The Conversation]
• How medical school reimbursement is fixing doctor shortages and improving health care in rural areas [AMA]
• How rich donors are targeting US medical school tuition [Financial Times]
• Free medical school tuition unlikely to have a major impact on the U.S. health care system [Stat News]
• Inspiring Student Stories From A Tuition-Free Medical School [Forbes]

Listen to the full episode of How I Doctor featuring Mark Cuban here.

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Join the Discussion

Would making med school free for all help fix our national physician shortage, and potentially also help address other systemic issues in medicine, like low diversity? Sound off in the comments.