Mark Cuban has a pitch for fixing American healthcare, and it starts with something pretty straightforward: stop charging people hundreds of thousands of dollars to become doctors.

The billionaire entrepreneur laid out his math in a July post on Bluesky. With roughly 100,000 students enrolled in medical school annually and total costs (tuition plus room and board) running about $100,000 per year, Cuban calculates the entire system could be made tuition-free for around $10 billion annually.

Why Cuban Thinks Free Medical School Makes Economic Sense

Cuban's argument isn't just about affordability. He believes eliminating the debt burden would fundamentally reshape how doctors approach their careers. Right now, crushing student loans push many medical graduates toward high-paying specialties rather than fields they're actually passionate about or areas where society needs them most.

"We would see a wholesale change in the profession, career paths and the cost of care," Cuban explained. "It would change the economics for every financial decision doctors [make]." In his view, the downstream benefits could include improved access to healthcare, a stronger primary care system, and less emphasis on profit-driven medicine.

This isn't Cuban's first time floating the idea. In 2024, he suggested the government could fund free medical education for under $2.5 billion yearly, using more conservative estimates. He's also mentioned that private companies might chip in to fund students' education in exchange for future employment commitments, particularly as technology continues reshaping the healthcare industry.

The Loan Cap Problem

Cuban's latest comments arrived just as Congress passed legislation in July (now signed into law) that caps federal student loans at $200,000. The problem? That's nowhere close to the actual cost of medical education. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, median costs for the class of 2026 hit $297,745 at public schools and $408,150 at private institutions.

Critics warn that restrictive loan caps could force students toward expensive private loans or discourage low-income and first-generation students from pursuing medicine entirely. The concern is that these policies might actually worsen America's existing doctor shortage, especially in rural and underserved communities.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who earned his medical degree in 1987 when tuition costs were a fraction of today's prices, offered a different perspective. "Anyone who is paying more than $100,000 to go to school is making a huge mistake," he told Politico.

Alice Walton's Tuition-Free Experiment

Cuban isn't alone in recognizing the system needs an overhaul. Alice Walton, the world's richest woman and Walmart heir, shares his concerns. In July, she opened the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville, Arkansas, with an emphasis on preventive care and treating patients holistically.

Walton is covering full tuition for the first five graduating classes. "I wanted to create a school that really gives doctors the ability to focus on how to keep their patients healthy," she told Time. The curriculum blends traditional medical science with arts and humanities, while requiring students to complete community service and take courses in nutrition and cooking.

Walton hopes her school becomes a blueprint for others to follow. "Our health care system is broken," she told Time. "Health care is the most inequitable. A lot of that is because we don't have doctors and health-care providers who look like a lot of people."

Whether Cuban's $10 billion proposal gains political traction remains to be seen, but the conversation around medical education costs and healthcare access continues to intensify as debt burdens climb and doctor shortages persist.