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In uncannily-timed releases of two surveys in March 2026, we see that U.S. physicians and consumers both rank health care access and affordability as the top issue they face — for medical practices among doctors, and for everyday life worries among U.S. health citizens.
On the physician front, The 2026 Physician Sentiment Survey was published by Athenahealth, gauging U.S. doctors’ views on the state of medical practice and healthcare in America.
“Over the past three years,” Athenahealth observes, “access to affordable healthcare has risen sharply to become the top policy concern among physicians,” up from 39% of physicians concerned growing to 52% in 2026. This replaced the issue of dealing with excessive documentation requirements — think, bureaucracy and paperwork — in recent years. 
For consumers’ views on top worries Americans are facing in early 2026, Gallup polled 1,000 U.S. adults and found that, as the press release’s title asserts, “Healthcare Reclaims Top Spot Among U.S. Domestic Worries.”
This is the first time health care has polled as the top U.S. consumer issue since Gallup’s survey in 2000.
Note that “the economy” ties with health care access and affordability on a net “great deal” + “fair amount” basis, but peoples’ veracity about health care ranks top for a “great deal” of worry, for 61% of health citizens versus 51% worried a “great deal” about the economy. Inflation is virtually tied for a great deal of worry with the economy in U.S. consumers’ worrying mindsets.
At the bottom of worries – important but lower priority — are illegal immigration and race relations.
Health Populi’s Hot Points: In a politically-charged year in the U.S., the economy, inflation, and job security in the wake of AI adoption are top-of-mind for consumers. These three factors also impact clinicians’ concerns in terms of payment and reimbursement for medical services, as well as angst about how AI is re-shaping physician work, workflows, and empowerment as healthcare providers and relationships with patients.
When it comes to trust between consumers (as health citizens) and institutions functioning in the U.S. economy, there continues to be healthy trust-equity between patients looking to their personal physicians for truth-telling and advice versus the government, media, and NGOs. Athenahealth and Gallup reinforce the opportunity for doctors and patients to come together to support each other’s best interests for health care financing and delivery, as well as for public policy and legislation that supports the highly-valued doctor-patient relationship. This relationship is why so many physicians went to medical school in the first place, and patients increasingly looking to and valuing shared decision-making with their physicians given the time and space to have that experience.
The post Doctors and Consumers in America Agree: Health Care Access and Affordability Rank Top of Mind in March 2026 (surveys from Athenahealth and Gallup) appeared first on HealthPopuli.com.
