General Acupuncture

We Get Letters: The NCCAOM Called Out

Acupuncture Today Staff

The article by the NCCAOM board on "the issue of student loan debt" is utterly laughable. Debt isn't mentioned a single time in the entire article, and instead places the problem squarely at the feet of those practicing. Many practitioners graduate with over 100k in student loans — a problem entirely to do with the educators in our field — while less than 10 percent of everyone practicing in the U.S. makes that much in income.

Those who do often live in bigger cities that have much more expensive living costs, like higher housing prices. Does the NCCAOM realize that you need to make as much per year as the total amount of your loans to reasonably pay them back in 15 years? That is the ratio according to the Department of Education.

Simply telling people to promote themselves on the NCCAOM practitioner database is a "[screw] you, deal with it yourself" response to a real problem we all face. How dare you publish such a ridiculous article.

Evan Bussanich, LAc, Dipl. OM,
Ashville, North Carolina

November 2017
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