The typical medical student begins residency $139,000 in debt. On Scrubs, J.D. and Turk stole fruit cups and toilet paper from Sacred Heart Hospital to help cover their expenses, but the Michigan State Medical Society has a few other ideas to help medical students cope with the rising costs of education and enable them to go into fields like primary care, instead of more lucrative specialties like dermatology.

Their ideas—presented as a resolution at the American Medical Association's annual meeting—were reported in a well-researched piece in the Detroit Free Press this week. The resolution noted the average doctor in his or her first year of residency could expect to pay nearly half of his or her after-tax income repaying school loans. This burden was especially difficult for primary care doctors who earn about 30 percent less than the average base-year salary for all physicians in 2006 according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

We've written before about a loan-repayment program in Massachusetts designed to encourage primary care doctors to work in high need areas. The Michigan group took a broader approach. Suggestions included:

• Shortened curriculums tailored to a student's competencies
• Work-study opportunities for med students
• Paid internships for fourth year students who had passed initial licensing exams
• Investment funds to match parental savings

We'll let the medical education experts figure out which of these approaches are the best, but when it comes to our medical system as whole, we've got to do more than just ease the burden of debt. We've got to change the way we pay for health care in this country so that doctors can afford to choose primary care specialties like internal medicine or pediatrics without having to worry if the janitor will catch them stealing fruit cups.