This Digest is a summary of the principal policy implications from Medical Education Financing: Policy Analyses and Options for the 1980s, comprehensive policy analyses of options for financing both undergraduate and graduate medical education. Five general classes of options are evaluated: (1) reimbursement reforms, (2) loan programs, (3) scholarship programs, (4) institutional support, and (5) nonfederal governmental programs. This report also provides background information on the structure, organization and financing of the medical education system; the National Health Service Corps; the history of federal legislation affecting medical education; and econometric studies of the relationship between physicians' earnings and specialty and location decisions. The evaluations are based on thorough reviews of existing research and the application of theoretical and empirical analyses to new data. Implications for an overall policy strategy for medical education financing are offered. The authors conclude that changes in the system of reimbursement for health services would have the greatest potential for altering physician distribution and affecting the medical education system. However, because the reimbursement system is complex and changes in it would probably not occur in the immediate future, recommendations are made on a number of options for the direct financing of medical and graduate medical education. (Author/DTT)