If you think cost is the only barrier to health care access, you are as misinformed as Congress. In its infinite wisdom, Congress put a freeze on CMS-funded medical residencies back in 1997, after being advised by an HHS Advisory Board that we were facing the income-crushing threat of having too many physicians. (CMS pays for about 85 percent of all medical residencies.)
Finally recognizing that thousands of medical school graduates go without being matched for a residency every year, and that America is facing a dramatic shortage of doctors in the near future, Congress agreed in 2020 that we need more trained physicians.