In a letter released today, the American Medical Association is urging the U.S. Department of Education to plug a gap in medical-student loan deferment created by a student-loan bill signed into law last month by President Bush. The letter asks the department to postpone the elimination of economic-hardship deferments for medical-school graduates that will affect graduates from now until July 2009.

Citing the $130,571 average debt burden borne by medical-school graduates and a report by the Council on Graduate Medical Education that predicts a shortage of 85,000 physicians by the year 2020, the letter laments that “the rules are being changed midstream, which does not provide residents enough time to restructure their repayment plans.” Several medical-school economic-hardship deferments were effectively eliminated by the new law, HR 2669, and will not be reinstated under the law for 21 months. —JJ Hermes