The extent to which medical education influences physicians' attitudes toward the issue of universal access to medical care was studied. Data were obtained from a survey of graduates from three medical schools with differing orientations. The first school could be described as traditional and highly research-oriented; the second as also traditional but more middle-of-the-road in its curriculum content; and the third as more social and primary care-oriented. Our results indicated that graduates from the more socially-oriented medical school were significantly more positive in their attitudes about the universality of the medical care issue than were graduates of the more traditional medical schools. The medical school effect vanished completely, however, when differences in personal characteristics among the three groups of graduates, namely, sex and interest in social sciences, were taken into account. Such findings support the hypothesis that the medical school effect can be explained to a greater extent by differences in medical student recruitment than by differences in medical school curricula. They also limit the expectations of those who advocate changes in medical curricula as a mean of inducing more favorable attitudes toward progressive medical care approaches in tomorrow's physicians.