Over the last few years, there has been increasing pressure on the U.S. health care system: this includes issues related to hospital staffing, as well as financial and operational challenges that have led to many health care facilities closing and reducing vital services like emergency and obstetric care.

On a daily basis, many of the nation’s largest health systems have either announced major deficits or are cutting costs. For instance, one of the nation’s premier health systems, Mass General Brigham (MGB), recently reported a 72-million-dollar operating loss in fiscal 2024 despite an intensive focus on cost management. (The response has included layoffs of approximately 1,500 employees or roughly 2% of its workforce.) Other large healthcare systems such as Vanderbilt, Yale New Haven Health, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Orlando Health, and many others have been affected by similar cost issues and have had to lay off people or downsize services. The most fragile level of health delivery encompasses our rural facilities. A February Chartis review reported that 432 rural hospitals are at risk of closing in 2025.

Now, health care is facing yet another obstacle: tariffs. President Trump’s announcement of an increase in tariffs on imports into the U.S. only stands to hurt our already fragile health care system. Many of the supplies that our patients and hospitals depend upon to safely operate are imported, including basic and necessary supplies such as medicines, gloves, gowns, and IV supplies. Tariffs will not only lead to higher prices for those goods but will astronomically add costs for the patients we care for.