From Rochester to the communities around Red Lake Reservation, Minnesotans depend on reliable, local care options. Our state has earned a reputation as one of the healthiest in the nation, with strong health outcomes and lower costs compared to similar states.
But that success is at risk. Minnesota is facing a growing physician shortage, with an estimated 19% of Minnesota’s medical workforce planning to retire or switch careers in the next few years. For Minnesota families, that will mean longer wait times and farther drives for essential medical care.
What’s worse is that federal policies hammered out in Washington risk adding fuel to the fire of our statewide doctor shortage. One in five Minnesotans rely on Medicare to cover their doctor visits, but payment to physicians through this vital program has been cut year after year, compounding the financial pressure on local practices.
As Biden-era inflation ran rampant since 2021, physicians have faced repeated reimbursement cuts from Medicare. President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill offered a welcome one-year reprieve for physicians, but this year, doctors are once again staring down another cut. It’s time Congress addresses this chronic issue, which seriously threatens competition in healthcare, disrupts patient choice, and harms our rural communities.
Unlike other healthcare providers, independent physicians do not receive automatic, annual inflationary updates like hospitals do. As costs rise, physicians are being forced to do more with less. As a result, many practices must choose between operating at a loss, reducing the number of Medicare patients they see, merging with a health system, or closing altogether.
Minnesota is expected to see population growth in several rural counties by 2055, with adults older than 65 outnumbering younger populations. This drastic increase, coupled with an increasing number of older adults, requires better accessibility to local doctors, especially primary care. If Medicare can’t cover the cost of providing care, there will be fewer doctors to serve Minnesota’s growing rural population, furthering medical deserts and the death of rural health access.
Minnesota’s patients and physicians deserve better. We can no longer tolerate a system that imposes government price caps on care. By failing to meet the cost of maintaining a practice, the current system ignores the free market and discourages doctors from staying in private practice, leading to unwarranted mergers with large health systems. Worse, it could force doctors out of the field altogether or forego expanding into rural Minnesota.
This type of payment system consistently undercuts physician practices, discourages entrepreneurship, and accelerates healthcare consolidation. Worst of all, it leaves patients with fewer local options when they need it most.
States should urge Congress to build a system that adequately and efficiently reimburses physicians under Medicare. Lawmakers could really help patients by moving beyond annual short-term “fixes” to Medicare cuts and advance legislation to cut fraud, the most preventable form of medical cost inflation. When asked how to best combat the affordability crisis, Minnesotans selected “cutting fraud” as their top priority. Ultimately, this will help stabilize physician practices, address the shortage of doctors across the country, and protect Americans’ access to care.
Minnesota’s physicians are counting on Congress. Achieving long-term Medicare payment reform gives physicians the support they need and the help Minnesota patients deserve.