America does not have enough doctors and it's causing problems. 

Many Americans have waited for hours in the ER, only to leave with expensive bills. Specialists and primary care doctors make you schedule months in advance. Every year medical premiums jump far more than wages or salaries. These are issues that affect each and every American. 

The need for quality healthcare in the U.S. has grown rapidly. Primary care sees the biggest disparity of patients to doctors out of all specialties, with a rising elderly population placing a higher load on our system. An analysis done by the Association of American Medical Colleges late last year projects our shortage of physicians to rise up from around 15,000 today to 86,000 by 2036. If this happens, average Americans can expect their healthcare system to become even more dysfunctional than it already is.

The problem isn't that people don't want to become doctors, it's that Medicare won't pay for everyone to be trained.

Congress controls funding for doctor residency programs through Medicare budgeting. In the 1990s, America foresaw a physician surplus. Acting on this projection, Congress placed a funding limit on these programs which bottlenecks the number of doctors who can be trained. This cap has not significantly changed since it was introduced in 1997, even now as we are in a shortage. America desperately needs more doctors, but we can only produce so many.

It's worth noting that every doctor who wants to practice in the U.S. legally needs to complete residency training to treat patients.

5,000-7,000 residency applicants can't become doctors each year because of the funding cap.

Medical schools have increased their class size to meet growing demand, but the graduates cannot enter the workforce because of the limit of residency slots. Medical schools are producing plenty of graduates; however, it's both the limitation of residency slots as well as the geographic distribution of the programs.

The shortage is worse in primary care and rural areas.

Rural areas desperately need primary care doctors, and it's only going to get worse. There are rural primary care residency slots that go unfilled every year, because the programs aren't as attractive to resident trainees. Whether it be an undesirable location or an underfunded program, graduates prove year after year that they don't want to get trained in these programs. 

The problem is nuanced. It's not that there isn't enough residency slots overall. We need to find a solution that makes primary care programs more desirable.

A solution is out there...

In the summer of 2025, U.S. Representatives Terri Sewell (D) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R) introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at combating this physician shortage. The bill, named the "Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act," will create 14,000 new residency slots in seven years. The addition of new slots will help alleviate the current residency bottleneck and allow more doctors to enter the workforce.

 In addition, the new funding will prioritize rural and underserved areas, where the effects are the most severe. In addition to increasing funding, the bill will standardize per-resident funding amounts, which incentivizes applicants with better funded programs.

While this bill won't solve the entire shortage, it represents a critical step in the right direction.

This bill is not a silver bullet. There is still much more work to be done to push doctors into rural areas and primary care specialties. It is important that we contact our policymakers and push for change. 

This petition is part of a larger grassroots effort to spread awareness about our physician shortage, as well as a call to action for every American to contact their local representatives to support this bill.  

ACT NOW! Sign the petition and click this link to email your representatives and let them know you want this bill to be passed!