How the Passage of the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Could Impact Med Students and Hospitals

July 20, 2025 5

Experts say they’re concerned about how Trump’s signature bill could affect medical students and hospitals.

Now that the “big, beautiful bill” – and its significant changes to a federal student loan program for graduate students – has become law, many future medical students may be left debating whether an expensive medical education is worth the money.

Signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, the law includes a $257,500 lifetime limit for all federal student loan borrowers and eliminates the Grad PLUS Loan Program, which allowed students to borrow to the fullest amount of their college attendance.

For future medical students, whose education is notoriously expensive, the changes could be particularly worrying: The median cost for a medical student’s education at private school is $390,848, while the median cost for in-state public school is $286,454, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges

Some experts are also worried the legislation could have negative effects on rural hospitals.

Cost Concerns

Jane Carreiro, the dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of New England, says she worries along with a lot of students attending her college about the effects the bill will have on future students as they try to enter the field.

“They’re concerned about whether or not they’re going to be able to afford this and how they’re going to be able to afford it and what terms are going to be out there if you go into the private sector,” she says.

Kristen Earle, the director of student financial services at the Association of American Medical Colleges, echoes Carreiro’s concerns. She says the law will make it more difficult for students to finance their medical school education, especially if they come from underprivileged backgrounds. Although students may still apply for private loans, being eligible for them is not always a given.

“There is a concern that this added barrier of private loans could deter qualified candidates, particularly those from low-income, rural and non-traditional backgrounds from pursuing a medical degree altogether, ultimately worsening the current and projected position shortage,” she says.

Fears of Physician Shortages

Additional concerns include the impact the legislation will have on rural communities that won’t be able to afford doctors asking for higher salaries in order to pay back their loans.

“If you’re making it harder for students to borrow money to go to medical school and it’s going to cost them more to go to medical school, then you’re not really encouraging people to go into those kinds of fields where we really need physicians. So it’s a little frustrating,” Carreiro says.

Rural communities may have been headed for trouble to begin with. In 2024, well before the bill’s passage, the AAMC had already warned of a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by the year 2036 partly due to an aging physician workforce.

A Path Forward?

Earle says that, although the legislation is still very new, schools already offer a variety of different options, such as scholarships, to help alleviate financial burdens and that they will continue to review their strategies to best support their students going forward.

Carreiro adds that she has hope that private sector lenders will help students in need.

“I think that the private sector is going to come through, but then we’re going to have to really step into the role of helping applicants figure out where they can go to access money and funding from a place that’s reliable, that’s going to have fair terms,” she says.

Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2025-07-18/how-the-passage-of-the-big-beautiful-bill-could-impact-med-students-and-hospitals

Written by: Joshua Stuart

Rate it