Trump bill’s caps on grad school loans could worsen doctor shortage

President Donald Trump’s policy agenda would make deep cuts in government health plans and medical research, and, critics say, could also make finding a doctor more difficult. The Republicans’ major domestic policy bill restricts loans that students rely on to pursue professional graduate degrees, making the path to becoming a physician harder even as doctor shortages loom and the American population is graying.

The bill, which passed in the House last month and carries the president’s support, would cap direct federal unsubsidized loans at $150,000 — far less than the cost of obtaining a medical education — and phase out the Grad PLUS loans that help many students make up the difference.

Medicine, dentistry and osteopathic medicine are among the most expensive graduate programs.

Four years of medical education costs $286,454 at a public school, on average, and $390,848 at a private one, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Medical school graduates leave with an average debt of $212,341, the association found.

The price of a four-year program in osteopathic medicine is $297,881 at a public school, on average, and $371,403 at a private school, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. The average indebtedness of their graduates is $259,196.

The proposed loan caps, which would affect students who begin their studies in 2026, “will either push students and families into the private loan market, where they take on more risk and have less consumer protection, or simply push people out of higher education altogether,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Private student loans are also not eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs, which many students rely on to manage their debt. Students from low-income families may have difficulty qualifying for private loans.

In a letter to congressional leaders, the American Medical Association asked lawmakers to carve out exceptions in the law for medical education, saying that the current bill would deter good candidates from applying to medical school, discourage physicians from working in underserved areas and make medical school unaffordable for all but the very wealthy. Critics said it could also drive more doctors away from lower-paying primary care fields, an area of acute need, and into more lucrative specialties.

Conservatives have argued for decades that the availability of federal student loans allowed tuition costs to balloon — a proposition rejected by the Association of American Medical Colleges, which instead blames the rising cost of living. Studies examining the relationship between loans and tuition have varied in their conclusions.

The private market, though, has shrunk markedly since the Great Recession, according to Lesley Turner, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Chicago and an author of an unpublished paper that linked loans to rising tuition.

In an email, Turner said it wasn’t clear that “the same level of nonfederal funding would be available today.”

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