Kate Wood

And also, I would say even for fields that are considered professional under this bill, a lot of professional organizations, notably the AMA or the American Medical Association, have complained that these borrowing caps are just too low.

That's definitely something that one could posit.

In theory, the sort of thinking behind this is that if we put in these borrowing caps and this is the maximum amount that students can pay, then schools will be forced to lower their tuition.

Not super how capitalism usually works, but in theory, that could put the squeeze on schools.

The reality is though, I mean, like you were saying, Sean, we might see a lot of students turning to private loans and we might just simply see people turning away from these fields entirely.

There are really serious concerns that existing shortages that we already have in medical fields, including nurses, are just going to be exacerbated if people feel like, well,

you know, how can I go into this?

How am I going to, you know, pay for it?

There are, you know, very valid concerns that these limits could dissuade people who are from groups that have historically been underrepresented in these fields.

So that could be people from underrepresented minority groups, first generation college students, students from rural areas,

Those groups are already underrepresented in medical fields and that this could dissuade people even further from going into them.

So then you're ending up with medical practitioners who don't reflect the diversity of the actual population.

As you mentioned, One Big Beautiful Bill Act didn't directly affect PSLF, but PSLF had already been tinkered with a little bit.

So at this point, it sounds like a long time ago, but way back in March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order that said that

employers who otherwise would qualify for PSLF, but who engaged in quote unquote illegal activities would lose that PSLF eligibility.

So in other words, if you're a student loan borrower, you're in repayment, you're working for these employers,

you would no longer be eligible for forgiveness with PSLF.

The language throughout is highly partisan, but the gist of it is that organizations that engage with issues like immigration, reproductive rights, really anything diversity, equity, and inclusion could be stripped of qualification.

That was finalized back in late October, 2025, so last fall, where they basically laid out a process for how these employer reviews would work, how they'd be notified, what that kind of timeline would be.

How this would actually look and who would decide what is or is not illegal still hasn't really been decided.