The hot trend for billionaire donors: paying for medical school tuition

• Billionaire philanthropists are increasingly cutting checks for future doctors.
• Some have cited medical professional shortages amid sky-high tuition costs.

Giving future doctors a free ride to medical school is shaping up to be a trend across the billionaire donor circuit.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged $600 million to four historically black medical schools to address "health disparities and underrepresentation in the medical field," founder Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, and Morehouse School of Medicine will receive $175 million each, while the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science will get $75 million.

Bloomberg has previously spoken about "a disturbing decline in life expectancy" and national doctor and nurse shortages amid steep medical school bills.

Just last month, Bloomberg Philanthropies gifted $1 billion to cover Johns Hopkins tuition for roughly two-thirds of current and incoming medical students.

In 2020, the organization donated $100 million to the same four historically black med schools to help "reduce the student debt of nearly 1,000 future Black doctors," it said.

Bloomberg isn't alone.

In February, a widow and former pediatrics professor gifted $1 billion — which she'd inherited from her late husband in Berkshire Hathaway stock — to a Bronx medical school, covering tuition in perpetuity in hopes of attracting a more diverse applicant pool.

Despite the recent big bucks going to future doctor's tuitions, the practice is a philanthropic approach dating back years.

In 2018, Kenneth Langone — the Home Depot cofounder — and his wife, Elaine, gave $100 million to cover tuition at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the AP reported. In 2023, they gave another $200 million to a different NYU med school.

And the record executive David Geffen — for whom UCLA's School of Medicine is named — has contributed $146 million towards merit scholarships, the outlet reported.