A provision tucked inside a sweeping bill signed into law by President Donald Trump last week will make it harder for thousands of aspiring doctors to finance their education as the country faces a growing shortage in that profession.
The move will cap the amount of federal loans students can borrow for graduate school to $20,500 a year — with a total limit of $100,000 — and cap loans for professional programs, such as medical, dental or law school, at $50,000 a year, with a total limit of $200,000.
While those limits may sound like large amounts, medical school students graduate with an average of more than $264,000 in educational debt and the cost of medical school programs can exceed $300,000 at private universities, according to the Education Data Initiative. Without the ability to take out more federal loans, prospective students say they will have to turn to private loans, which can have stricter borrowing or repayment options, or potentially put off their medical school plans.
“I have watched a lot of students get into debt, and it is scary, but part of the medical training and the medical education system, it’s an expensive journey. I think that it’s something that the government needs to understand,” said Zoe Lewczak, a 26-year-old bioethics master’s student at Harvard Medical School, who is in the process of applying to 30 schools for MD-Ph.D. programs. “What is currently happening, I think this is going to create a major gap in who is able to access medical education and pursue it.”
The legislation, which Republicans have dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill,” largely focuses on providing trillions of dollars in tax cuts for businesses, increased spending for immigration enforcement and cuts to health insurance programs. But within the nearly 900-page law are several changes to student loan programs, including the elimination of a loan program put in place in 2006 called Grad PLUS, which allows students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance.
The Grad PLUS loans were initially intended to help more people attend graduate and professional programs. But opponents of the loan program have argued that it has allowed colleges and universities to increase tuition unchecked because students have been able to borrow essentially unlimited amounts of money, leaving borrowers with financially crippling levels of debt.
Medical schools have warned the loan cap could discourage students from going into medicine at a time when the country is already on track to have a shortage of as many as 86,000 physicians by 2036, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The group said that medical school tuition increases have slowed since the introduction of the loan program.
“This will intensify challenges for medical students to finance their education due to some of the complexities of private loans, and we believe it will result in an additional financial barrier to attending medical school,” said Kristen Earle, AAMC program leader for student financial aid services. “This added barrier could deter qualified candidates from pursuing a medical degree altogether, ultimately worsening the existing and expected physician shortage.”
The student loan cap comes as universities are already struggling with wider funding cuts. Trump has sought to cut off various forms of federal funding for institutions that have policies with which he disagrees, and the Department of Government Efficiency has cut or frozen medical and scientific funding schools rely on.
For Lewczak, the loan cap will likely force her to find financial assistance beyond the government. At her top-choice medical school, the average student leaves with $400,000 in debt — double the loan limit that will be imposed by the bill. With the new loan cap, she’s considering taking out private loans, something she thinks should be an option since she has built up good credit.
“There seems to be this misconception that federal student loans are just like free handouts, and that is very much false,” she said. “You are signing an agreement, you are paying it back with the interest rate.”
While private loans will still be an option for some students, those loans aren’t eligible for public service loan forgiveness programs, like those for doctors who work in underserved communities. Private loans can also come with less flexible repayment options or require the borrower to have a co-signer, Earle said.
As a first-generation college student, Lewczak created a TikTok account to help students figure out how to fund graduate school in higher education. She predicts the new law will create a gap in students who want to pursue medicine and students who can actually access that education.
Other current and prospective medical school students have also taken to social media to share their concerns over the loan limit.
Shae-Marie Stafford-Trujillo, 23, who is completing a one-year post-bachelor certificate program at Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, said the bill is already dashing her hopes of studying at some of her top-choice medical schools, like Stanford University, where one year of attendance costs more than $150,000.
“You can imagine how almost surreal it feels to not even be able to go to an institution and study that,” said Stafford-Trujillo, who hopes to specialize in research around narcolepsy, a condition she has personally struggled with. “It’s not even across the world, it’s potentially only a couple of 100 miles away, but now I don’t even have the opportunity to go and study at some of these institutions.”
Unless she gets into an MD-Ph.D. program, which could be fully paid for, Stafford-Trujillo likely will only be able to afford an in-state medical school in Texas.
“You could imagine and empathize with now students are no longer able to apply broadly or to apply to programs, potentially their dream school,” she said.
Lauren Garkow, 25, is halfway through a four-year medical school based in the Caribbean and is interested in pursuing a career in pathology when she graduates. She said her classmates have already struggled to afford even the basic necessities — a struggle she expects to get even worse if loans are limited.
“I really fear for all the medical students who have to deal with that new bill,” she said.
“Health care as a whole will be affected,” she said. “This is going to have a ripple effect on all of us.”
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