The new law eliminates a federal loan program that has been particularly helpful for medical students from lower-income backgrounds in rural and underserved urban areas.
As part of the recently passed Big Beautiful Bill, Congress authorized a policy that could undermine the future of U.S. healthcare by eliminating the Grad PLUS loan program and imposing caps on federal student borrowing for graduate and professional degrees.
While it may sound like a prudent move to reduce federal debt burdens, this new law threatens one of the most vital sectors of our economy: medicine.
Medical school is expensive. Most students graduate with more than $200,000 in debt, and many programs cost far more when accounting for tuition, fees, and living expenses. But the students who take on that debt, and who reliably repay it, are also the ones who go on to become physicians in the communities that desperately need them.
And yet, with the Grad PLUS loan program eliminated and borrowing capped well below the cost of attendance, thousands of medical students, especially those from lower-income backgrounds in rural and underserved urban areas, will be shut out of the profession altogether.
This isn't speculation, it's an economic fact. Medical students from wealthy families can lean on savings or secure private loans with favorable terms. But for students from low-income and rural households, who are often the first in their families to pursue graduate education, federal loans are the only viable path.
According to ScienceDirect, these students are most likely to return to their communities to practice medicine. When we make medical education unaffordable for them, we're not just limiting their opportunities; we're pulling critical lifelines away from rural counties, inner-city neighborhoods, and tribal lands, where doctor shortages are already at crisis levels.
The Association of American Medical Colleges projects that the United States will face a shortfall of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034. That gap won't be filled by naively hoping that tuition prices will fall. Infrastructure, accreditation requirements, and the high cost of clinical training constrain medical schools. Cutting off access to federal loans won't force tuition down; it will shrink the applicant pool and deepen the physician shortage.
Even more puzzling is the baseless assertion by some politicians that medical students pose a financial risk to the loan system. The data tells a different story. Medical students, despite carrying the highest debt loads of any degree program, have among the lowest loan default rates (under 1%) compared to other borrowers. Their strong earning potential, job stability, and commitment to public service make them some of the most reliable debt carriers in the country.
So why penalize them? Why force those who've already overcome the most barriers to take on even greater ones, at the exact moment our healthcare system needs them most?
Dr. David Lenihan is the CEO of Ponce Health Sciences University. Photo courtesy of Ponce Health Sciences University.
If President Trump and Congress are serious about addressing healthcare workforce shortages, they should expand access to medical education, not restrict it. This means creating and passing new legislation that reinstates Grad PLUS loans, maintains borrowing limits that reflect the actual cost of medical training, and strengthens income-driven repayment programs that reward service in high-need areas.
This isn't just a fight about financial aid. It's about who gets to become a doctor in America. If we restrict that path to only those who can afford it upfront, we'll pay the price in closed clinics, longer waiting times, and entire communities without access to medical professionals.
The pipeline to becoming a physician shouldn't be gated by wealth. It should be shaped by commitment, skill, and the willingness to serve. Washington needs to remember that before it creates insurmountable impediments for the next generation of doctors to care for the patients who most need them.
Dr. David Lenihan is the CEO of Ponce Health Sciences University.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Students from wealthy families can draw on savings or secure private loans at favorable terms to attend medical school.
The Big Beautiful Bill's reduction in financial support for medical education is likely to worsen physician shortages in rural and underserved urban areas.