A provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law July 4, imposed stricter borrowing limits on the amount of federal student loans that those earning professional degrees can borrow.
Specifically, the new legislation eliminates the Grad PLUS program, which allowed students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance, including living expenses. Additionally, it places a $200,000 lifetime cap on federal loans for graduate students in professional degree programs. According to a Nov. 25 report published by NPR, many private medical schools already cost upward of $300,000, including living expenses.
The legislation imposed even stricter limits for students in other health fields, including nursing and public health. In a Nov. 6 announcement, the Education Department said it would no longer consider graduate education in those fields to be “professional” degrees.
The restrictions imposed on medical students’ borrowing come at a time when most medical students already come from the upper 40% of family income, Vineet Arora, MD, vice dean of education at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, told NPR.
“That will automatically give a lot of people some pause to think about where they’re accepted and what their finances are,” Dr. Arora said.
Another restriction, imposed Oct. 30 and already facing a court challenge, adds limitations to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which has allowed healthcare workers who work in high-need areas and make payments for 10 years to erase their debt. The program will no longer be available for those working for an entity engaging in “illegal activities” involving immigration, gender-affirming care or “terrorism” aimed at “obstructing or influencing” federal policy. The secretary of education will determine which organizations will be deemed ineligible.
The Association of American Medical Colleges told NPR that the new loan limits will likely worsen the physician shortage, already forecast to reach as high as 86,000 physicians by 2036 — on top of existing shortfalls in underserved communities.
“If future medical students face greater financial barriers — especially those from low-income, rural, or first-generation backgrounds — we risk shrinking the supply of qualified applicants. Fewer students entering medical school now means fewer residents and practicing physicians later,” the AAMC said in an emailed statement.
