Billionaire investor and philanthropist Ken Langone, the founder of The Home Depot (HD) and chairman of Invemed Associates, and his wife, Elaine, recently pledged $100 million to NYU Langone Medical School to support free tuition for all med students.
“I suppose you start by saying, ‘How can I touch the most people possible?’ In 12 short years, I still expect to be alive, even though I’m 83. I’m counting on it, all right? In 12 short years, this nation is going to be short 50,000 primary care physicians, 30,000 pediatricians, and about 25,000 OB-GYN,” Langone, the chair of NYU Langone’s board of trustees, said at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit.
Langone said one of the critical problems is that medical students graduate with significant debt and don’t start making money until much later.
“If we don’t figure out a way out to offer a kid, by the way, a pediatrician, $150,000, $175,000 a year. I know many firms on Wall Street that pay secretaries more than that or pay guys that run their dining rooms more than that. So you’re asking a young person, boy or girl, whatever, to sign up for $200,000 average when they’re done with medical school. And where you have this need, there isn’t much money.”
In addition to Langone and his wife’s gift, another $400 million was raised, all from private donors.
“We have these great needs,” Langone said. “I lecture our guys at the medical center, I never want to hear you say to some other medical center, ‘Follow us. Join us. Join us.’ We’ve got a serious national problem, and we’re living longer. Understand something. All this great science and all these great medical breakthroughs we’re having, we’re living a hell of a lot longer, and more vibrant, and more active. And guess what? The longer you live, the more health care you need.”
The grandson of Italian immigrants, Langone grew up in a working-class family on Long Island, New York. Neither of his parents graduated high school. His father was a plumber and his mother worked in a school cafeteria. They both took on extra shifts to send Langone to Bucknell where he majored in economics. Langone has built an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion.
“So why we did it was we decided that this was one way that we could demonstrate our gratitude our way of living the American dream. And I’ve lived the American dream.”
Langone’s long-time friend Stanley Druckenmiller, the billionaire hedge fund legend, said in an interview with RealVision that he hopes other schools follow NYU’s lead.
“While it wouldn’t be the greatest outcome for NYU, I think even the people who run NYU, our dream would be that starts an arms race, because the brain drain going out of medicine into less productive things, like my business and the tech world, social media, and things, has been horrendous,” Druckenmiller said. “By the time these kids go through four years of pre-med, medical school, residency, and then fellowships, they usually don’t start earning money until their mid-30s, and they’ve got $500,000 in debt. And you can be making $2 or $3 million a year in my business with a lot less preparation at the age of 27 or 28. So I really hope Harvard, with their $40 billion endowment or whatever it is, and the others, decide that they can’t let NYU just grab all the great medical students.”
Watch the full Langone interview here >>
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Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter. Send tips to [email protected].
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