Healthcare industry, nurses take another blow

If Trump supporters get sick of people criticizing the president, then, please, someone tell him to quit doing insane things that affect not only the RGV, but the entire country.

Case in point — can we all agree that the healthcare industry is suffering from a shortage of nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants (PAs)? You know, the ones who plug the holes because there aren’t enough MDs, DOs, around to care for the sick.

It’s a fact of life unless one is extremely lucky, blessed, take your pick — we all get older, and with that comes health problems. The question is not if, but when.

When we’re sick, we need either a physician or someone who can act as a proxy is his or her place, like a nurse practitioner (an RN with typically a master’s degree) or a physicians’ assistant (master’s degree now required).

These are the people who typically become a nurse in a bachelor’s program and then move on to the post-graduate level, where the academic study is so rigorous, it’s hard to hold down a part-time job. The studying becomes a fulltime endeavor. Which is why, until Trump and his GOP Congressional tribe passed the One Big Beautiful Bill July 4th, the feds classified nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and public health as “professional degrees.” In one swipe of his gold pen, the president signed the bill into law, which changed the classification of nurses seeking post-graduate degrees from “professional degrees” to “graduate programs.”

Oh, the law students are still considered to be among those in search of “professional degrees,” but not nurses working towards a master’s degree. Or those trying to become a PA, a physical or occupational therapist. In what whacky world does this make any sense?

The Loan Diff

So what’s the big deal, you ask, while the president is divvying up the spoils with his heavy hitters?

The nursing students working toward advanced degrees, those working to become PAs, therapists, can no longer borrow $50,000 a year to live on, since that’s now been cut down to $20,500 annually.

Total, they can only borrow an aggregate amount of $100,000.

That’s compared to medical students, law students, dental students who can still borrow $50,000 a year, and an aggregate amount of $200,000.

I know, like you, I agree, we need more lawyers than we do nurse practitioners or physician assistants who work under licensed physicians, helping them take care of the medical demand.

So, a law student maintains his “professional degree” status when it comes to student loans, but the nurse working towards a master’s degree is bumped down to a “graduate program.”

You know, same as the student working on a master’s degree in English.

Now there is no difference between the two. At least on paper when it comes to fed-backed student loans.

The GOP budget also eliminates the Grad PLUS program that allowed graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance.

In a statement, the Department of Education said the changes “place commonsense limits and guardrails on future student loan borrowing and simplify the federal student loan repayment system.”

What the hell does that even mean? In a just world, the politicians who voted for this insanity would run into a healthcare shortage when they get sick, but you and I know that most will be given VIP status, even post-retirement.

“He’s a former senator (U.S. representative), so let’s work him/her into the schedule.”

No, he/she is a bag of wind too stupid for words.

This new insane student-loan downgrade kicks in July 1, 2026.

Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, said limiting access to funding for graduate education threatens the foundation of patient care.

“In many communities across the country, particularly in rural and underserved areas, advanced practice registered nurses ensure access to essential, high-quality care that would otherwise be unavailable,” Kennedy said in a statement. (Source: Wisconsin Public Radio).

So just when the U.S. is suffering from a physician shortage, especially in the RGV’s rural areas where nurse practitioners and PAs often work with licensed physicians to plug the gap, along comes this new federal bill that makes absolutely no sense to anyone with a thinking brain.

Part-time jobs are really not part of the equation because like med-school students, albeit to a lesser extent, these master’s programs for nurses, PAs, are so rigorous that studying becomes a full-time job. There is no time to work a part-time hustle.

Now they’re going to have to.