Breaking News: The Future of America’s PAs & NPs is in Jeopardy

Sweeping federal loan changes take effect July 1, 2026, under the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). While the bill eliminates the Grad PLUS Loan program for all graduate students, the consequences will not be evenly distributed. In recently released guidance, the U.S. Department of Education classified Physician Assistant (PA) and Nurse Practitioner (NP) degrees as non-professional graduate programs—a categorization that will have profound and harmful impacts on the healthcare workforce.

While professional programs such as medicine (MD/DO), dentistry (DDS/DMD), pharmacy (PharmD), podiatry (DPM), optometry (OD), veterinary medicine (DVM), chiropractic (DC), law (JD/LLB), theology (M.Div.), and clinical psychology (PsyD) remain eligible for $50,000 in annual federal borrowing and $200,000 in aggregate federal loans, PA and NP students will be restricted to $20,500 per year and $100,000 lifetime—with no Grad PLUS option available after July 2026.

For PA and NP education, these limits are simply unworkable.

According to the Physician Assistant Education Association’s most recent national report:

• Average total cost of PA school
• Public: $79,941
• Private: $95,279
• Many programs now exceed $110,000–$130,000 in total tuition and fees.

National data from AACN and graduate tuition surveys show:

• MSN/NP master’s degrees: $30,000–$80,000
• DNP programs: $40,000–$120,000+
• Many full-time NP programs at major universities exceed $90,000.

These totals do not include the required undergraduate degree.

PA and NP programs both require a completed bachelor’s degree for admission. This means the total cost to become a practicing PA or NP routinely exceeds $150,000–$200,000+, far above the new federal loan limit of $100,000.

Once Grad PLUS disappears, students will be forced into private student loans—products that require strong credit, a qualified cosigner, higher interest rates, and offer none of the protections or repayment options that federal loans provide.

The lower federal student loan caps with the non-professional designation of PAs and NPs will disproportionately harm:

• First-generation students
• Applicants from low-income families
• Students without access to a strong cosigner
• Applicants from rural and underserved communities

Over 90% of graduate borrowers without substantial credit history require a cosigner for private loans. The result is predictable: significantly reduced access to PA and NP programs for precisely the students the workforce needs most.

This will create a new bottleneck for US healthcare workers. Physician shortages are already severe. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) projects a national shortfall of:

• Up to 86,000 physicians by 2036
• Including a deficit of over 30,000 primary care physicians.

PAs and NPs help fill these gaps, especially in primary care, rural medicine, and underserved areas.

• NPs now deliver more than 1 billion patient visits annually.
• PAs report 500+ million patient interactions per year across specialty and primary care settings.

Restricting access to these programs may solve a financial constraint but will manufacture a healthcare access crisis.

If fewer PA and NP students can enroll, fewer clinicians will graduate.
If fewer clinicians graduate, more communities will go without care.

This will deepen disparities in rural areas, low-income regions, and in states with already-limited provider availability.

PA and NP programs are clinical training programs that prepare providers to:

• Diagnose and treat illness
• Order and interpret diagnostic testing
• Prescribe medications
• Manage acute and chronic disease
• Perform clinical procedures
• Practice independently or collaboratively depending on state law

These roles are aligned with every other profession classified by the Department of Education as a “professional degree.” The decision to exclude PA and NP programs is an administrative choice, not a reflection of training rigor or clinical responsibility.

Reclassifying these programs as professional degrees is the most direct and necessary fix.

The OBBB’s federal loan caps—combined with the Department of Education’s exclusion of PA and NP programs as professionals—threaten to restrict entry into two of the fastest-growing and most essential healthcare professions. At a time of record physician shortages, the United States should be expanding access to PA and NP education, not limiting it to those with strong credit histories and cosigners.

To protect the future workforce, policymakers should urgently pursue:

1. Reclassification of PA and NP programs as professional degree programs
2. Federal loan limits that reflect actual educational costs

The healthcare system cannot withstand a shrinking pipeline of PAs and NPs.
Access, equity, and patient outcomes depend on ensuring that these programs remain financially accessible to all qualified students—not only those with financial means..

Before these federal changes hit, make sure your own student loan strategy isn’t costing you even more.

We put together a free guide that walks you through the 7 most expensive mistakes medical professionals make with student loans, and how to avoid them.

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