Opinion: The urgent imperative to fully fund CT’s only public academic medical center

Hartford Courant – Wednesday, August 5, 2026
By Students at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine

When we were deciding where to pursue our medical training, we knew that we wanted to pursue medicine somewhere special—at a place that puts patients’ needs first, focuses on the health of patients not only within the walls of the hospital but in the broader community, understands the value of interprofessional collaboration in caring for patients, and most importantly is willing to give back to Connecticut, a state we have been fortunate enough to call home.

We realized that there was only one place that fit these criteria: UConn Health.

The reduction in state investments and holding back promised funding to cover our faculty raises will have detrimental consequences to our institution, to us as students, and to the state’s future health care workforce.

We are concerned that this significant budget shortfall will be addressed by increasing the financial burden on students and reducing our educational opportunities. Equally worrisome would be placing additional strain on faculty and staff, who are essential to our training, and negatively impacting patients.

Some of us will be first-generation physicians and the financial burden of medical education rests largely on our shoulders. Medical students already face significant financial pressure. 77% of UConn medical students have debt when they graduate with an average debt burden of around $200,000.

To mitigate the reduction in state funds, UConn Medical School has already increased tuition. This will negatively impact students at a time of great financial need, especially given the recent changes to federal student loan support that place new caps on loans to pay for a medical education and reduce the amount of loans that are eligible for public service loan forgiveness (PSLF). At a time when there is a physician and primary health care shortage, this will limit who can afford medical school and make it more difficult for lower-income students to pursue lower-paying specialties, like primary care or pediatrics, or work in academic medicine, a career that holds the significant responsibility of training future generations of physicians.

Our state is already facing a physician shortage with nearly 20% of residents living in federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas. A quarter of all physicians in Connecticut were trained at UConn. Our medical school is essential to the physician workforce pipeline for the state.

Protecting affordable medical education and supporting faculty and staff compensation are not mutually exclusive.

Our instructors and support staff are critical to training future physicians and advancing the health of Connecticut residents. They deserve fair and competitive compensation. UConn Health provides high-quality and life-saving care and provides more subspecialty care than any other health system. We need our faculty physicians to remain at UConn Health to teach and to serve our community.

We urge our state’s elected officials to recognize the urgent imperative to fully fund UConn Health for the benefit of its students, faculty, patients, and the broader community.

Claire Chang, M.D. Candidate, 2027; James Galske, M.D. Candidate, 2027; Sumeet Kadian, M.D. Candidate, 2028; Medical/Dental Student Government, president (2024-2025); Andrew Shapiro, M.D. Candidate, 2029. The authors are students at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, located on the UConn Health campus in Farmington.

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