Help Others Help Others

According to the University of the State of New York, East New York, Brooklyn is a prime example of a community on the wrong end of the health disparity spectrum. It has one of the lowest primary healthcare providers per capita rates in New York. At the same time, as a result of socio-economic factors, it has one of the highest health-risk populations in the area. The community has materially higher than average incidences of cigarette and drug use, obesity and diabetes. The infant mortality rate of 7.8 per 1,000 births is higher than the New York City average, as well as the greater Brooklyn area average.

Supply and demand principles and efficient deployment of government assets, viewed through a societal economics lens, suggest that this community should have robust medical resources to meet its needs. It does not. Competing real economic factors instead lead to a healthcare deficit – a material shortage of healthcare people power. Healthcare professionals simply take more lucrative jobs. The draw to richer communities, and higher salaried positions, is not particularly born from selfishness. Doctors and nurses often graduate with both the desire to serve and crippling debt; many with school loans incurred in now long-ago high-interest rate environments. In fact, many want, but cannot afford, to begin their careers in underserved areas, where salaries are often significantly lower.

Some medical education programs seek to address these issues. For example, NYU now provides a free medical education for those qualified and lucky enough to gain entrance. Its law school followed suit, which will allow some of its graduates to initially work in public welfare agencies and neighborhoods that are similarly underserved by legal resources. The Sophie Davis BA/MD program in NYC provides a free medical education in exchange for a post-graduate commitment to work in underserved areas.

Governments and businesses similarly should see the benefit of providing real incentives for healthcare workers, making it easier for them to bring their education, passion and talent to underserved areas. Government student loan forgiveness programs, and private business funded “life scholarships” that supplement living costs for healthcare workers or help them pay off already-incurred school expenses, could be powerful tools that enable healthcare workers to decide where they work based on desire, rather than on their own economic obstacles.