
Kaiser Permanente’s New Med School Will Waive Tuition for Its First 5 Classes - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/health/kaiser-medical-school-free-.html
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ardy42
It's worth noting that medical schools aren't accredited until they graduate
their first class (after 4 years), and during that time their students _don
't_ quality for private student loans, so they have to take out private ones
(i.e. worst of both worlds).

Offering free tuition to their early classes has the double benefit of free
tuition _and_ the avoidance of an unusually shitty loan situation for their
students. Given the fact about accreditation, I think a program like this
should be standard for new medical schools.

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siruncledrew
It’s not a first to offer free med school tuition, but the best reason I can
see why Kaiser would do this is self-preservation. Get students in the door
with free tuition, put them to work for free with immersions in Kaiser
institutions, and then put them in residencies in Kaiser hospitals. It’s like
an educational corporate town. A private company is keeping a stronghold on
their huge healthcare network and establishing a medical school is a great way
to support their own interests. I don’t believe a private healthcare company
is going to offer a no-strings-attached free lunch.

Removing Kaiser from the situation, what would the sentiment be if Amazon or
Google bought up a small college and started their own university where
cirriculum was based solely around AWS or Google Cloud? Where students worked
on projects to directly support the shareholders and business in exchange for
a piece of paper. It seems like a better deal for the company than the
students.

Not to say the students aren’t good or qualified. They could be damn good
doctors. Only time will tell.

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Dowwie
It is a rarety now but there was a time when employers offered tuition
reimbursement programs for higher education. Graduate programs such as
business schools are really expensive, but were economically feasible if an
employer covered the cost. This wasn't a free lunch program. Employees needed
to stay with the firm for at least X years immediately following completion.
You have to do whatever possible to keep the ship afloat. You also can't leave
without incurring steep financial penalties. However, if you love your job and
where you work, this is such a luxury to have.

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titanomachy
"Even middle-class families are finding medical school hard to pay for"

Why should families be paying for this at all? Shouldn't I be able to fund my
own education, especially higher degrees? Most parents don't expect to still
be shelling out 10s of thousands of dollars to their 26-year-old offspring.
It's insane how normalized these astronomical tuitions have become.

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Scoundreller
It often doesn’t make sense to have one generation investing their money and
paying taxes on the gains, while another is paying interest to a bank.

If they’re going to get excess earnings one day as an inheritance, it may make
sense to give while alive. Especially if inheritance taxes may be involved
(and who knows what rate they may be in 30 years).

Unless that kind of leverage makes sense, and sometimes it does.

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smcnally
Presuming Kaiser and NYU clearly communicate their offers, these are great
opportunities for people who choose to be considered for these programs.

> “Kaiser Permanente … is following the New York University School of
> Medicine, which announced last year that it would eliminate tuition for all
> current and future students.”

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m0zg
KP raised my already insane Obamacare premium by almost 20% this year though.

