Billionaire Mark Cuban is doubling down on his idea that medical school in the U.S. should be tuition-free. “There are 100k students in med school each year. Room and board is about 100k per year. For $10B a year, med school could be free,” Cuban said recently on Bluesky.
A Bold Proposal With Economic Upside
Cuban believes this kind of investment “would see a wholesale change in the profession, career paths and the cost of care.” He argues that high education costs force students to make financial decisions that limit their options and ultimately hurt the healthcare system.
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This isn’t a new idea for him. Back in December, Cuban floated a similar plan, saying the government could fund free medical school for under $2.5 billion a year. At the time, Cuban estimated the cost by multiplying the number of students by average expenses, noting there are fewer than 25,000 medical students in the U.S. and average annual costs are typically below $100,000 per student.
He also suggested that private companies might be willing to cover students’ education in exchange for post-graduate employment, especially as AI and other technologies reshape health care.
Pushback From Congress
Cuban's renewed comments came as the Senate passed a tax bill on July 1 that includes, among other things, new limits on how much students can borrow for medical and other professional degrees. It is now before the House for final approval. The proposed cap is $200,000, well below the real cost of attending med school.
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According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the median cost for the class of 2025 is $286,454 at public institutions and $390,848 at private ones.
Many in the medical field say these changes could shut out low-income and first-generation students, push them toward private loans with worse terms, and worsen the doctor shortage, especially in rural and primary care settings.
“When they come into medical education, more times than not, they don’t have co-signers,” Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine President John L. Hummer told Politico.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who earned his medical degree in 1987 when tuition was a fraction of today's cost, wasn’t sympathetic. "Anyone who is paying more than $100,000 to go to school is making a huge mistake," he told Politico.
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A Strategic Investment
Cuban frames free medical education as a smart long-term investment. After all, more doctors could improve access to care and reduce delays, allowing illnesses to be caught and treated earlier, which would result in better health outcomes for many Americans.
In February 2024, that vision came to life in one corner of the country. Ruth Gottesman, widow of Warren Buffett's longtime associate David Gottesman, donated $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, making tuition free for all future students.
And a $1 billion donation from Michael Bloomberg to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore removes financial barriers for medical students from families making less than $300,000 per year. Living expenses are also covered for those earning less than $175,000.
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