Mark Cuban made the case for free medical school at the American Medical Association’s National Advocacy Conference on Feb. 25, arguing that eliminating tuition would expand the physician talent pipeline and help address shortages in underserved areas, MedPage Today reported.
The weight of student loan debt can push medical school graduates toward higher-paying job opportunities and away from specialties — or communities — that need physicians most, including primary care and pediatrics.
“By making it free, that’s no longer part of the conversation,” Mr. Cuban said, noting that free programs could require graduates to practice in underserved areas.
“And I think that’s a win-win for doctors and for patients,” the co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs Co., added.
Mr. Cuban’s remarks come as medical school costs have risen significantly over the past two decades, outpacing inflation. For the 2024-25 academic year, the average cost of medical school was $59,720, up 3.5% from the prior year, according to the Education Data Initiative.
About 70% of 2025 graduates had medical school debt, with an average balance of more than $216,000.
Several medical schools have already gone tuition-free, including Bronx, N.Y.-based Albert Einstein College of Medicine, which was made tuition-free for all medical students in perpetuity in 2024 through a donation from Dr. Ruth L. Gottesman; New York City-based NYU Grossman School of Medicine in 2018; and Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, which announced free tuition in 2024 for families earning under $300,000. Both initiatives were supported by major philanthropic gifts to the schools.
However, some evidence suggests the model has not fully delivered on its promises to support in-need specialties and alleviate physician shortages. At NYU Grossman School of Medicine, primary care rates were mostly unchanged after going tuition-free, and applications increased by 50% without a proportional increase in slots — potentially making admissions harder for low-income students, Rose Horowitch wrote in a 2024 analysis for The Atlantic. Some experts have argued that philanthropic dollars would be better spent expanding medical school capacity by opening new schools or lobbying for expanded caps on Medicare-funded student and residency slots.
NYU has defended the model, pointing to tangible results for student debt relief in a 2025 op-ed published by Becker’s. Medical school leaders said the program has dramatically reduced debt for graduates and highlighted its accelerated three-year medical degree pathway as a key complement: 83% of three-year graduates in 2024 had zero medical debt, compared to a national average of 37%, and those with debt averaged just $52,000.
“I’m going into pediatrics, which is one of the less compensated specialties in medicine,” graduate Emily Johnson, MD, shared in the op-ed. “But I feel freer to pursue it knowing I have hundreds of thousands of dollars less debt to repay.”
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