Amid a physician shortage, we’re making medical school harder to afford

Americans already wait weeks — and in some communities, months — to see a physician. At the very moment our nation needs more doctors, federal policy may be making it more difficult for talented young people to become one.

New federal limits on student borrowing are taking effect, creating unintended consequences that extend far beyond medical schools. Unless Congress and the administration revisit these restrictions, we risk worsening an already critical physician shortage, reducing access to care and narrowing the pipeline of future physicians.

Supporters of these borrowing limits make legitimate points. They argue that unlimited federal lending has contributed to tuition inflation, encouraged excessive borrowing and shifted too much financial risk to taxpayers. They also believe colleges should have stronger incentives to control costs. Those are reasonable policy objectives.

Medical education, however, is fundamentally different from nearly every other graduate program.

Under the 2025 federal budget reconciliation law, medical students are generally limited to borrowing $50,000 annually and $200,000 over the course of their professional education, subject to a $257,500 aggregate federal borrowing limit. While many currently enrolled students are protected, these limits will increasingly affect future applicants deciding whether medicine remains financially attainable.

Unlike most graduate students, physicians enter one of the nation’s most workforce-constrained professions, complete years of supervised residency training and have historically demonstrated exceptionally low student loan default rates. Applying the same financing model to medical education risks solving one problem while creating another: producing fewer physicians precisely when America needs more.

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