At one time, I considered becoming a doctor, but the cost was far too high. At the time, though, there was a program funded by the USPHS that would pay for medical school in exchange for a commitment to spend four years in that service. So, I learned a lot about the PHS, since that really would have been my only way to pay for medical school.
In the end, I decided against becoming an MD, so it wasn't needed, and I ended up in the USAF and finishing college on the GI Bill.
Anyhow most PHS doctor officers served as doctors in rural areas, mostly, where there were no doctors. The pay was lousy, as you can imagine, but living expenses, etc. were also fully funded. The USPHS also does other things, but that was what I would have been doing for four years had I decided to go that way.
Exactly what the organization does now, I don't know, actually. Probably there are still some of its doctors who serve in rural areas, native american reservations, etc. I'm not sure about that, though, and am not going to go look it up. I don't know if that program to send people to medical school is still active, but it was in the 1960s.
The Surgeon General is part of the USPHS, as well.
We don't hear much about it any more, though. I'm sure it still has some mission to perform, and the website says it has 6100 medical professionals as part of the service. I imagine there is still some way to get a medical school education through some sort of program, like there was in my day. Otherwise, it would be very hard to recruit doctors for it, I'd think.
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