Millions of students in India aspire to become doctors. But cracking one of the most competitive exams in the world does not assure them of a spot in a medical college. That is because private MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) seats, accounting for about 40 percent of the total seats, typically cost upwards of INR 50 lakh, putting them out of reach for the average Indian middle-class household.
Moreover, most financial institutions in the country do not provide such large loans. Even if they did, it would take 2-3 decades for students to repay them. The high cost of private medical education, coupled with the lack of student financing options, means that many meritorious students are not be able to ‘afford’ becoming doctors. Those who do pass through the private education system are likely to work in private hospitals in urban areas to recover their high costs. Thus, this problem has serious implications for the quality and accessibility of India’s healthcare system.
India has a highly privatised medical education system, with more than 250 private medical colleges enrolling 1.7 lakh students. At the undergraduate level (MBBS), these students typically pay INR 50-60 lakhs 1 (going up to INR 1.3 crore) 2 for a ‘general’ seat. 3
India’s private medical education system enrolls 40 percent of all students and is amongst the costliest in the world.
To put this into perspective, a similar course at the National University of Singapore (globally ranked #23) would cost INR 36 lakhs and at Johns Hopkins University (globally ranked #5) would cost INR 43 lakhs, after adjusting for purchasing power parity (PPP). Moreover, these fees are 5-10 times more than those charged by premium private institutes in other streams such as engineering, law, and management.
Students who pursue postgraduate studies (specialisation or super-specialisation) at private colleges, would pay a total of INR 1-3 crores, 20-30 times more than what they would pay if they were educated in the government system. 4
These exorbitant costs are driven, in large part, by regulatory mandates such as infrastructure requirements (it costs upwards of INR 200 crores to set up a private medical college) 5 and the huge demand-supply mismatch (about 15 lakh candidates apply for 60,000 MBBS seats). While the government plans to regulate fees for 50 percent of private college seats, as per the recently passed National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, student financing will be crucial for the remaining seats.
Public sector banks, the traditional source of higher education loans in India, typically cap loan amounts at INR 10 lakhs, which are better suited to students entering streams such as engineering, law, and business, where fees are significantly lower. Even with private sector banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), some of whom do not have lending limits, students face significant challenges, including high collateral requirements (usually 100 percent of the loan amount), higher interest rates, and short tenures (typically less than 15 years, for a domain where one starts earning adequately only after 10-15 years of joining an MBBS course).
Less than a fifth of qualified doctors are estimated to be working in rural areas.
As a result, the quality of students entering private medical colleges is lower than desired. Many candidates with top ranks in the national medical entrance test (NEET) opt out of the profession as they are unable or unwilling to pay the high private college fees. This is reflected in the fact that the average rank for government-controlled (low fees) seats in 2017 was about 40,000 and private-controlled (high fees) was about 150,000, well beyond the 60,000 merit-based cut-off. 6 7
To recover the high cost of education sooner, graduates from private colleges mostly opt for lucrative private jobs in urban locations, resulting in an inequitable distribution of doctors. Based on average salaries and typical career progressions, both MBBS and specialist doctors (MDs) from private colleges are able to recover the cost of their education in their early forties if they work in private hospitals (mostly in urban areas), and almost a decade later (in the case of MDs) if they choose to work in the public system. 8 9 It is no surprise then, that less than a fifth of qualified doctors are estimated to be working in rural areas.
In this context, there is an urgent need to develop tailored, innovative financing solutions to improve the quality of student intake and ensure a better geographical distribution of doctors. Below are some thought starters:
In summary, India’s private medical education system enrolls about 40 percent of all students and is amongst the costliest in the world, with students spending upwards of INR 25,000 crores every year in aggregate. 10 Many of our best and brightest students are being turned away from the profession due to the high sticker price of medical education and the lack of financing options. Those who do manage to finance their degrees are likely to opt for jobs in private healthcare in urban areas, depriving millions of ordinary citizens of good primary healthcare.
In this scenario, the development and adoption of innovative, tailored student financing models by the government and financial institutions can help address this issue.
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Learn more about the problems plaguing medical colleges and the underlying issues around setting up new institutes from this article by The Wire.
Understand the changes being brought about by the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, by reading this summary of the legislation.