New student loan caps threaten the health of everyone
New Student Loan Caps Threaten the Health of Everyone
By: Kira Sampson
Like many, I was glued to my phone watching each update come in from the New York Times suggesting that the “Big Beautiful Bill” was about to, then indeed did, pass last winter. I felt disgusted by my own government’s lack of remorse for stripping health insurance from millions and stripping dignity from low-income communities, immigrants and anyone who didn’t look exactly like them.
While much of this bill was devastating to medical practice, among other things, the caps on student loans hit especially close to home.
I remember telling my parents about my choice to apply to medical school years ago. I remember them repeatedly asking, “But how will you pay for it?” I showed them the federal loans, including graduate PLUS loans, which made it possible for low, middle and high-income, people to attend medical school. I showed them the loan forgiveness programs and explained how I could get some of the debt forgiven by working in an academic hospital or an underserved area. Neither of my parents nor anyone in my family had ever worked in health care. They had no idea the schooling was so costly, nor that programs existed to help pay for it.
Medical school is exorbitantly expensive. Should it cost that much? I’m not sure. But to cap the loans a student can take out, rather than first cap the amount a university can charge to attend school, is a disservice to society and the end of a dream for many. Our government has once again put the onus on the consumer, in this case, the learner, to solve a national debt problem created by lawmakers over decades. Now, students and an already heavily strained health care system will suffer for it.
Beginning in July, students beginning medical school will be limited to borrowing no more than $50,000 a year and will be prohibited from borrowing more than $200,000 over four years. The College of Medicine estimates the cost of attendance to be $85,595 for the first year for in-state students and $119,495 for out-of-state students. These estimates are marginally higher on the Chicago campus due to higher costs of living. This means that without family support or a substantial amount of savings and scholarships, lifelong Illinois residents will be forced to take out private loans to attend their home state medical school.
It should be worth noting that private student loan options in the United States are overwhelmingly predatory. To begin with, students need an established credit record to take them out. In addition, many require you to make payments on your loans while still a student – a task that is virtually impossible to do without a source of substantial income. They typically have significantly higher interest rates than federal loans, making one’s total student debt grow exponentially faster than that of one with federal loans. Lastly, private loans are not eligible for low-income repayment plans or public service loan forgiveness programs that many physicians pursuing lower-paying fields like pediatrics depend on to be able to have financial stability through residency and beyond.
I have wanted to be a doctor since elementary school, after spending weeks in a San Antonio Hospital watching my grandfather pass from esophageal cancer, a mere three months after being diagnosed. I remember his doctors showing my brother and I the many tubes connected to him, and his nurses sneaking us into his room after hours to say goodbye when we had already exceeded the number of family members allowed in his unit. From a young age, it was deeply ingrained in me that a career in medicine was a career in service to humanity, a career in kindness and a pursuit of making your life mean something.
Two years into medical school, I still wake up every day in slight disbelief that I am here. And it breaks my heart that because of this bill, others might have to turn this dream away.
It behooves me to ask my representatives some questions. Why aren’t you fighting for us? Why are you making it impossible for people to devote their lives to something good? Why are you so willing to leave people behind? While my classmates and I are “grandfathered” into pre-existing loan caps, I fear for future generations of students. We have set ourselves up to create classes of only high-income students – a homogenous population that will not be able to relate to the realities most patients face every day. This will only harm the health of our country.
Kira is an M2 at UICOMR
ksamp4@uic.edu