In July 2025, President Donald Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, in which the definition of “professional degree” was reinterpreted to include a select few programs, including medicine, dentistry and law. The Department of Education, or DOE, introduced the regulation to reduce the number of students who would qualify for higher-capped federal student loans with the intended effect of limiting risk for taxpayers on large-balance and potentially uncollectible loans; healthcare organizations simultaneously contend that lowering borrowing limits will decrease enrollment and subsequent employment. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a data graphic showing that private education and health services are the fastest growing industries in the United States, and many critics of the OBBBA, like the American Physical Therapy Association, or APTA, argue that the decision will leave a large deficit in these professions that make up most of that growth and could impose implications in an already congested system.

APTA President Kyle Covington spoke on the potential negatives of the OBBBA in relation to the healthcare industry in a statement released in November 2025. 

“APTA believes the idea is misguided and misinformed and will have a significant negative impact on the health of our communities and country by diminishing the number of quality health care professionals available to an already strained workforce,” Covington wrote in the statement.

In 2025, the average wait time to see a physician in the U.S. was estimated to be around 31 days, a 19% increase from 2022 according to a survey by AMN Healthcare. Nurses and physician assistants currently play a role in alleviating the traffic in medical appointments, and hospitals are potentially facing an even worse strain on patient flow should enrollment in these occupations decline due to the OBBBA’s restrictions on student loans.

The specific financial changes from the proposal are not set to take full effect until July 1, and those currently enrolled in professional programs will still be able to borrow the full amount, so the effects the OBBBA will have on professional degree enrollments is still uncertain. Texas A&M’s Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Chief Enrollment Officer Christopher Reed said that while no effects have been seen yet, future changes are still unknown.

“We haven’t seen any downward trends on applications or enrollment, but that isn’t to say that won’t change,” Reed said.

Reed also noted the actual implications of this legislation and its effect on admissions, referring to how it will lower borrowing limits but not make attending these programs financially impossible. The OBBBA states the official borrowing capacity for the designated professional and graduate degrees.

“A graduate student, who is not a professional student, may borrow in any academic year or its equivalent shall be $20,500; and … a professional student may borrow in any academic year or its equivalent shall be $50,000,” the OBBBA outlined.

The Events Coordinator for Future Aggie Physician Assistants, Biomedical Sciences Junior Abigail Reavis, said redefining professional degrees and changing loan limits will have a negative impact on enrollment in the future.

“I believe the changes will deter more people from healthcare in a time where we need those professionals the most,” she said. “Especially with the changing loan rules, it’s going to be a lot harder for many people to afford those programs and may put it out of the question entirely.”

However, the DOE claims that affected students will still be able to afford tuition, reporting that 95% of nursing students already borrow under the federal loan limit and colleges have inflated the tuition of programs with less earning potential due to the high loan caps.

“Since 2007, graduate and professional students have been able to borrow up to the full cost of attendance,” the DOE stated. “This has allowed colleges and universities to dramatically increase tuition rates, even for credentials with modest earnings potential, which has saddled too many borrowers with debts they find difficult to repay.”

Whether universities will lower the costs of their programs to meet the new borrowing limits is still in question. However, past trends can be observed of how the perceived value of a professional path can influence enrollment. 

Following the Great Recession in 2008, U.S. law schools experienced a significant decline in the number of applicants between 2010 and 2016. The attitudes surrounding the considerably high earning potential, prestigious status and reliability in the job market began to negatively shift. In 2014, the ABA Journal reported law school applications to be down 37% from 2010 after statistics were released about the lack of jobs in the market coupled with high debt loans, causing students to believe the return on investment not to be worthwhile.

The biggest point of contention with the OBBBA is the value, or lack thereof, that healthcare organizations, such as the New York Academy of Medicine, or NYAM, believe the federal government places upon these affected programs. While the DOE insists that their designation of “professional degrees” is not a pejorative of these practitioners but simply used categorically to determine who qualifies for higher loan limits, the NYAM believes it demeans the strenuous training of physical therapists, physician assistants and nurses.

Both sides encourage the public to consider numerous variables in this proposal. About $140 billion of federal student loans are in default and contribute to the roughly $1.8 trillion of total outstanding student debt. The DOE maintains their position that redefining professional degrees is the best course of action to alleviate this section of the U.S.’ debt. Some question the rhetorical connotations of deeming certain programs less qualified for higher loan caps and what that will do to the perceived return on investment of nursing and physical therapy and their future enrollment in college.