Whenever Washington makes a big decision about the future of our nation’s health care system, patients should always be at the forefront. This means finding ways to make it easier for Americans—whether in rural South Dakota or downtown Los Angeles—to access care close to home.

Iowans are facing health challenges like never before because today’s Medicare system demands that physicians do more with less. Too often, patients try to schedule an appointment, only to be told their physician is not accepting new patients or their long-time physician closed their doors for good.

AMA Board of Trustees member Scott Ferguson, MD, explains how the combination of new health care policies under the Trump Administration are accelerating what the AMA views as a growing health care crisis.

President Donald Trump signed his administration’s signature tax-cut and spending bill into law, including a 2.5% pay bump for physicians in 2026 but leaving out larger reforms to tie doc pay increases in the Medicare program to inflation.

Drastic cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will increase wait times, result in more fragmented or nonexistent care, and cause unnecessary deaths and despair.

Just like the December 2024 continuing resolution, the current budget reconciliation bill fails to address the problem of Medicare reimbursing physicians at below market rates.

Medicare Trustees warned today that long-term access to care for seniors is threatened by Medicare’s failure to keep up with the cost of practicing medicine, adding to the drumbeat of similar warnings from policymakers and the American Medical Association.

MedPAC recommends overhauling Medicare updates of physician payments with a permanent, inflation-based formula tied to the Medicare Economic Index (MEI).

Continued federal underpayment of physicians is fueling a looming health care crisis by accelerating the nation’s physician shortage and undermining patient access to care.