Dr. Christopher Wing, a first-year resident working at Mount Carmel Grove City Hospital, keeps an eye on a patient inside the COVID-19 ward in December. Hospital workers struggled to keep up with all of the patients late last year.
San Diego, California – San Diego lawmakers and healthcare leaders will gather Monday to assess how President Donald Trump’s recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” could reshape the region’s medical landscape — and not for the better, according to its critics.
Representatives Scott Peters and Sara Jacobs are hosting a roundtable with the Family Health Center of San Diego, bringing together medical students, residency program coordinators, and pediatric education administrators to discuss the law’s implications. At the center of their concerns: sweeping changes to student loan programs and deep cuts to Medicaid that could weaken both the healthcare workforce and the safety net that supports millions of patients.
Peters warns that the bill’s overhaul of federal student loan programs, particularly the elimination of the Graduate PLUS program, will choke the pipeline of future physicians. Roughly half of all medical students in the U.S. depend on Grad PLUS loans to finance their education. The new law sets strict borrowing limits and alters repayment plans, changes that Peters argues will deter many students from even entering medical school.
“This bill jeopardizes the healthcare workforce pipeline by exacerbating the country’s physician shortage,” Peters’ office said in a statement. “At the same time, hospitals could be forced to close because of the bill’s cuts to Medicaid.”
Those cuts — more than $1 trillion over the next decade — will coincide with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid recipients. Adults will need to verify twice a year that they are working at least 80 hours a month, are enrolled in school, or are participating in community service. While most of these changes won’t take effect until 2027, Peters and Jacobs say the long-term consequences could be severe: fewer doctors, longer wait times, and worsening health outcomes, particularly for low-income and rural communities.
Hospitals that rely heavily on Medicaid reimbursements may face financial collapse, they warn, a crisis that would leave many without access to essential care. The combination of reduced medical training opportunities and shuttered facilities, Peters said, could leave “people sicker and facing more health challenges” in the years ahead.
By convening voices from across the healthcare sector, the lawmakers hope to draw attention to the interconnected impact of student loan reform and Medicaid cuts — and to lay the groundwork for policy responses. For San Diego’s medical community, the stakes are not abstract: the region’s ability to train new doctors and keep hospitals open may hinge on the very provisions they will be discussing Monday.
