When a family member’s health is on the line, every day of waiting feels like a gamble — and for millions of Americans, the wait for a doctor’s appointment has stretched from weeks into months. For families already stretched thin, that wait can mean more than frustration; it can mean financial ruin, worsened illness, and impossible choices.
Across Wisconsin, patients are running into walls when they try to schedule medical visits. A woman in Mount Pleasant waited 10 months to see a dermatologist. In Kenosha, a man who suffered multiple fainting episodes learned his neurology appointment wouldn’t come until June 2027 — nearly a year away. And in Auburn, a husband scheduled a neurology appointment for his wife, who began showing signs of dementia, 14 months out — and now worries she may not live long enough to keep it. These are not edge cases. They reflect a growing crisis in how American families access medical care. Wisconsin Watch asked readers to share their experiences earlier this year, and the responses poured in from across the state.
Why the Wait Is Getting Worse
The root causes are structural and deeply connected to the financial and demographic pressures reshaping American health care. Baby boomers are retiring from medicine just as the aging population — which needs more care — is growing. Wisconsin feels this acutely: its workforce is shrinking, and its residents are older than the national average. Rural hospital closures have pushed patients toward already-strained urban health systems, making surrounding health systems even busier. The physician workforce pipeline has also struggled to keep pace — a challenge explored in reporting on how two doctors who fled Ukraine for Wisconsin are still trying to get their careers back.
3Dhealth, a Chicago-based consulting firm that helps health systems determine how many doctors to recruit, has tracked Wisconsin wait times since 2012 through a “secret shopper” process — calling physicians’ offices posing as new patients. Between 2012 and 2024, the company made more than 8,000 calls to Wisconsin physician offices covering 62 specialties across eight health systems. About 7% of calls went unanswered. Of those that reached a staff member, roughly 15% of practices were closed to new patients entirely. Those that did accept new patients had an average wait of 33 days — but half of patients waited 21 days or longer, and 1 in 10 waited more than 75 days.
Specialists were harder to reach than primary care doctors — averaging 42 days versus 33 — though primary care offices were more likely to be closed to new patients altogether (about 24% versus 11%). In rural areas, waits were longer and closed practices more common. Ron Flower, President and CEO of 3Dhealth, says the national picture is worsening.
“All of that has been getting worse in general across the country, especially over the past five years since COVID,”
Flower said.
The Hidden Financial Cost of Waiting
Long wait times aren’t just inconvenient — they carry real financial consequences for families. When a patient can’t get a timely appointment with a specialist or primary care doctor, many turn to urgent care clinics or emergency rooms, where costs are dramatically higher and often only partially covered by insurance. A delayed diagnosis can mean a condition that was treatable and inexpensive to manage early becomes complex and costly to address later. For families without robust insurance coverage, those added costs can quickly spiral into medical debt. And for those who must travel to a different health system to find an earlier appointment, transportation costs, time off work, and childcare can add up fast — burdens that fall hardest on working families with the fewest financial cushions. These are precisely the dynamics that make equitable access to timely care so critical to household financial stability.
Sarah C. Schaefer, a patient advocate based in the Madison area, sees these pressures firsthand. Schaefer spent about 20 years as a nurse practitioner before founding Ascent Patient Advocates, where she now helps people navigate the health care system and coordinate their care. Her clients regularly face two- to three-month waits for specialist appointments — if those practices are open at all.
“It’s a problem that I definitely deal with and work through with my clients on a regular basis,”
Schaefer said.
What You Can Do Right Now
Both Schaefer and Flower emphasize that patients don’t have to simply accept the first appointment they’re offered. The scheduling staff at busy practices are often moving fast, handling thousands of calls, and may not proactively offer alternatives unless prompted.
“They’re trying to get you on and off that phone as quickly as possible so that they can get to the doctor or the charts, or they can get to the next person calling in. If you prompt them … all of a sudden, their brain clicks in that way: ‘Oh yeah, I can help you.'”
Flower said.
3Dhealth’s data found that practices closed to new patients in rural areas were less than half as likely as those in urban areas to suggest alternatives if the caller didn’t ask. A little persistence can open doors. Flower notes that expressing urgency often helps.
“Oftentimes, if you do that little bit of pushback, show a little bit of anxiety, they’re going to say, ‘Well, I’ve got an appointment tomorrow (that) we’re holding for an established patient or a walk-in. But why don’t you come on in at that time?'”
Flower said.
If you can travel, ask whether an earlier slot is available at a different clinic within the same health system. It’s also worth asking whether you can see a nurse practitioner or physician assistant instead of a physician.
“This varies by insurance or potentially health system … I would say sometimes appropriate, sometimes not, but something to explore for sure,”
Schaefer said. If the clinic agrees, verify coverage with your insurer before the visit.
One of the most underused tools: the waitlist. Many practices maintain lists of patients hoping for earlier openings, but staff may not mention them unless asked. Some use automated systems that text patients when a slot opens and give them a short window to respond. Even without a formal waitlist, calling back periodically can pay off.
“That’s one thing that I do frequently. People can cancel appointments on their patient portals … all times of the day and night, so appointment slots do open up,”
Schaefer said.
Flower added that waitlists serve the practice as well as the patient:
“It’s smart on their end. We get things that come up. It’s called life. So let’s have a way of filling our practice and making our practice more productive and profitable and helpful.”
Check Whether Your Wait Is Actually Safe
Before assuming you need to be seen immediately, Flower notes that medical staff often have a clearer sense of urgency than patients do — and that many patients have already been delaying care for a while before they call. Still, if something feels wrong, don’t ignore it.
Schaefer recommends following up with the provider who made the referral to make sure it was coded with the right level of urgency.
“Go with your gut. … Call back to your primary (care provider) and say, ‘Hey, you made it sound like this is an urgent issue. They’re telling me three months. I just want to let you know.'”
Schaefer said.
“Maybe they didn’t click that ‘urgent’ button, or maybe this is a scenario where the doctor needs to pick up the phone and call another provider and chat.”
Schaefer also suggests asking whether a provider who already sees a family member might take you on as a patient — some give preference to relatives of existing patients, even when they are otherwise closed to new ones.
When to Look Outside Your Health System
If none of these strategies work, Schaefer recommends looking beyond your current health system entirely — though she cautions that insurance coverage can complicate the decision. Calling your insurer to understand what’s covered out-of-network is a good first step.
For primary care specifically, there’s another option gaining traction: the growing number of “direct primary care” practices, where patients pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited access to certain primary care services, bypassing insurance altogether. Some parts of Wisconsin now have several of these practices, though availability remains uneven across the state.
Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit newsroom working in partnership with Open Campus, plans to continue covering Wisconsin’s health workforce and access challenges. Related coverage includes investigations into how new credentials are reshaping career pathways, whether Wisconsin’s health apprenticeships can become a national model, and whether Wisconsin employers can check your credit. You can subscribe to Wisconsin Watch newsletters for original stories and weekly roundups at wisconsinwatch.org.