Health Care Workforce Expansion Act of 2025

Full tuition covered for medical, dental, and nursing students — doctors and dentists owe 10 years of service in return.

More about this bill

Medical, dental, and nursing school could cost you nothing in tuition. The federal government would pay tuition and required fees for as long as the degree takes, up to eight years. Payments would start July 1, 2026. Two of the three groups take on a promise in return. Medical students would have to work in primary care for 10 years. Dental students would have to practice in a rural area for 10 years. Nursing students make no such promise. If you do not finish the service, part of the grant becomes a loan. The most you would owe back is $50,000. Schools would also get money to teach more students. Medical schools that take the grant must raise enrollment 50% by year two, and 50% more by year four. Nursing schools must add 30%, and dental schools 20%. The plan calls for $2.8 billion for medical schools, $1.98 billion for nursing, and $615 million for dental. Schools would give priority to students from rural, low-income, and first-generation families. Students with disabilities and groups underrepresented in these fields are also named. Medicare would pay for 50,220 more residency training positions from 2027 through 2036. At least 30% must go to primary care and 15% to psychiatry. Rural care runs through the whole bill. Doctors, nurses, and dentists now practicing in a city or suburb could get moving grants. Those grants run up to $20,000 for a move to a rural area. They must stay three years or pay half of it back. That program is funded at $1.8 billion through 2035. Teaching health centers that train residents would get at least $170,000 per resident in 2026, rising $10,000 each year. The money behind those payments would climb from about $893 million in 2026 to $4.1 billion in 2035. The tuition grants carry no dollar cap, and the government would spend what it takes.