America’s health care system is stuck in the past and long overdue for transformation. Despite remarkable advancements in medical science and technology, its structural foundation remains frozen in time, built on mid-20th-century policy decisions that prioritized hospital construction and highly specialized care over preventive, community-based primary care. This deep misalignment between how we pay for care and what people actually need isn’t just inefficient — it’s costing us dearly in both dollars and lives.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently established the Healthcare Advisory Committee, charged with delivering strategic recommendations to improve how care is financed and delivered across Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace. Additionally, the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill provides a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program fund.

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Tom Banning is the CEO and executive vice president of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians. For more than 25 years, he has advocated for family physicians and their patients in Texas.