New limits on school loans could narrow physician and nurse pipeline, educators warn

A little-noticed provision in the sweeping 'One Big Beautiful' legislation enacted by the GOP over the summer sharply limits the amount of federal student loans that students earning professional degrees — including medical school — can borrow. It also imposes even stricter borrowing caps for other health fields including nursing and public health. The Education Department does not consider graduate education in those fields "professional" education, though officials described that as a technical and regulatory decision, rather than a value judgment. The loan changes will hit next July when an open-ended federal loan program known as Grad PLUS will stop making new loans. From that point on, med students won't be able to borrow more than $50,000 a year — or more than $200,000 over the four years. Many private med schools already cost north of $300,000, including living expenses.