A Colorado woman bled on the emergency room floor while waiting 12 hours for care. A New York man who feared he had appendicitis waited eight hours while repeatedly vomiting and passing out. A cancer survivor in San Francisco waited 28 hours for a doctor to examine her injured leg. By the time she saw a doctor, she was paralyzed.

ER wait times have been steadily increasing since 2012, spiking during the coronavirus pandemic. Today, they’re higher than ever.

What is happening in America’s emergency rooms?

A new study published in the journal Health Affairs looked at data from 46 million emergency visits across all 50 states since 2017. Researchers found a national increase in wait times, with the average wait time exceeding four hours. Additionally, 5% of patients waited more than 24 hours to get assistance.

Notably, the study did not factor people leaving the ER before they received care, which is typically referred to as ER “abandonment.”

Staffing shortages are certainly a factor, but they alone can’t explain increased wait times.

According to Niklas Kleinworth, a policy analyst at the Paragon Health Institute, the problem is largely due to the lack of financial incentives in the American healthcare system.

“I think that the increased ER wait times are actually one of the big broken promises of Obamacare,” Kleinworth told The Daily Wire on Thursday. “When that law was passed, we were promised that if you gave people more healthcare coverage, they would see their primary care physician instead of going to the ER. They would have more access. But we’ve actually seen the opposite.”

“We’ve seen that a lot of the financial incentives for people to take care of themselves and go see their regular physician haven’t come to fruition,” he explained. “And so now people are going to the emergency room to get routine care instead.”

Kleinworth said expanding telehealth services could help solve this problem. In Montana, for example, after Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) signed a bill in 2021 to increase telehealth access and eliminate certain restrictions, emergency department visits decreased with Medicaid enrollees. Mental health services were also more accessible and cost-effective for residents in rural communities and the Native population.

Another problem is the increased rate of rural hospital closures. With fewer rural hospitals, Americans from these areas are forced to travel longer distances to city hospitals, adding to already congested ERs.

Kleinworth explained that federal programs like the 340B Drug Pricing Program actually “encourage consolidation.” As a result, we’re seeing large urban hospitals buy up small rural hospitals to capitalize incentives meant for rural areas.

Larger city hospitals “benefit from a lot of the programs that were designed for those [rural] hospitals, like 340B Drug Pricing Program,” he said. “And then they’ll reduce access to services in those areas and redirect them to more wealthy areas where the margins are higher.”

He also highlighted some other “pretty basic solutions,” like making sure government programs designed to help rural facilities actually help rural facilities.

Kleinworth also noted that a little deregulation could go a long way to increase health care access.

“For example, in the state of Idaho, they allow non-physicians like pharmacists to be able to practice at the top of their license. And a lot of people receive their primary care through their pharmacists now,” Kleinworth said.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said this month that illegal immigrants are driving up ER wait times and healthcare costs alike. Democrats say that giving illegals full access to the American healthcare marketplace will help alleviate stress on emergency rooms.

Kleinworth isn’t so sure.

“Unfortunately, no, that’s not the solution,” Kleinworth told The Daily Wire. “Take California, for example. California is one of those states where they’ve offered healthcare benefits to illegals for years now. The promise was that it was going to allow them to access their primary care and they won’t have to go to the emergency rooms anymore. But we find that California actually has some of the highest ER wait times in the country. They also have some of the highest abandonment rates in the country.”

Ultimately, Kleinworth says, we need to seriously overhaul Medicaid.

“The problem here is that the way the system is designed, it prioritizes able-bodied working-age adults over pregnant women, the disabled, elderly, and children,” he said. “And what we saw with Medicaid expansion, a lot of those people were less likely to be able to access their specialists, their primary care physician, so it also increased the ER wait times.”

“Refocusing the program on the truly needy, instead of able-bodied working-age adults would help,” Kleinworth said, noting that President Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill “made a lot of progress toward that.”

If you want to know what the American spirit is, don’t ask a politician.

Ask the dad coaching Little League after a 10-hour workday. Ask the single mom who prays over the dinner table even when she’s not sure how she’ll pay the light bill. Ask the soldier who salutes a flag that too many in Washington now treat like a political prop instead of a sacred symbol.

The American spirit was never about government. It was about grit, grace, and the stubborn belief that no matter who you are or where you start, you can build a life rooted in faith, family, and freedom. It’s the heartbeat of a people who crossed oceans, tilled soil they didn’t own, and risked everything for the promise of something better.

Today, that spirit feels tested — maybe more than at any time in our lifetime. We live in a country where politics has become sport, truth has become optional, and too many Americans are told that our Founding ideals are relics of oppression rather than beacons of hope. Both parties have lost sight of who they work for. Both Democrats and Republicans “govern” like it’s a game or street fight. Somewhere between strategy and survival, the people get forgotten.

I’ll say this clearly: I love America. And when you love something, you’re expected to be critical of it. If you didn’t love your kids, you wouldn’t discipline them. Love doesn’t mean silence — it means wanting the best for what you hold dear. My criticism of America isn’t born of cynicism. It’s born of conviction that we can do better because we are better.

But here’s the thing: the American spirit isn’t dead. It’s just been buried under noise. And if you listen closely — past the headlines, the outrage, and the endless finger-pointing — you can still hear it.

I heard it at a Buccaneers game this past weekend. I was still in the concession area grabbing a beer when the national anthem began. Without anyone saying a word, the entire concourse stopped. Vendors, fans, security guards — everyone froze in place. Hats came off. Conversations stopped mid-sentence. For ninety seconds, the chaos of modern life went silent, and every person stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the direction of a flag they couldn’t even see. That’s the American spirit. Not something choreographed or forced, but something instinctive. Reverence that lives deep in the bones of ordinary people.

The American spirit is defiant and hopeful all at once. It’s rebellious in the best sense of the word. Our Founders didn’t wait for permission to pursue liberty — they acted on conviction. And they didn’t do it for fame or profit. They did it because they believed that human freedom was a divine calling, not a political gift. That belief came straight from Scripture: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” That’s not just a verse — it’s the origin story of the greatest nation on Earth.

Yet somewhere along the way, we traded that conviction for comfort. We let cynicism creep in. We started looking to politicians to fix what only character can. We looked to Washington for salvation when it should have started in our own homes, churches, and communities. We forgot that self-government begins with self-discipline.

When Alexis de Tocqueville came to America nearly two centuries ago, he was astonished not by our government but by our people — by their faith, their voluntary associations, their instinct to help neighbors before the state ever arrived. That’s what made America exceptional. Not that we were richer or smarter, but that we were moral and free.

Who needs to hear this? Honestly, everyone.

The young person taught that America is something to apologize for. The middle-aged voter who’s stopped believing that anything can change. The elected official who’s forgotten that public service is a trust, not a brand. And yes, even the conservative who’s become so jaded by corruption and media manipulation that they’ve forgotten hope is a weapon too.

We need to remember that pessimism never built anything worth keeping. Hope did. Faith did. The American spirit did.

If we can define that spirit, we can reclaim it. And reclaiming it starts with three things: we return to God, we rebuild the family, and we rediscover community.

No nation can sustain freedom without virtue, and no virtue survives long without faith. Our Founders knew this. John Adams said it plainly: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.” They didn’t separate church and state to erase faith from public life — they did it to protect the church from the state’s reach. Reclaiming the American spirit means bringing prayer back to dinner tables, courage back to pulpits, and humility back to our leaders.

Every cultural rot you can name — crime, addiction, confusion, despair — can be traced to the breakdown of the home. A strong nation begins with strong moms and dads who teach their children that life has purpose, that truth exists, and that love isn’t license — it’s responsibility. You can’t legislate that. You can only live it.

And the American spirit thrives in places Washington will never reach: small towns, ballfields, church pews, front porches. It’s where people still look each other in the eye and say, “How can I help?” instead of, “Who did you vote for?”

Reclaiming that isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about survival. Because when you know your neighbor, you’re less likely to hate him. When you serve your church, you’re less likely to feel hopeless. And when you live with purpose, you stop waiting for politicians to deliver meaning they were never meant to provide.

So yes, criticize the left for weaponizing victimhood. But don’t spare the right for losing moral courage. The problem isn’t just policy — it’s pride. It’s thinking we can restore the country through ballots alone without first reviving our souls.

The American spirit was born in defiance of tyranny, but it survived through obedience — to God, to conscience, to truth. It’s not red or blue — it’s red, white, and blue. And it belongs to anyone willing to live by the creed our Founders staked their lives on: that freedom is worth the fight, that virtue is worth the cost, and that faith is worth the ridicule.

We are not finished as a nation. We are being refined. And maybe that’s exactly what the American spirit has always been. Tested, but never broken; humbled, but never hopeless; faithful, even when the world mocks the faith itself.

As we stand on the eve of America’s 250th birthday, let’s take that spirit seriously. We’re a ways removed from the fireworks and speeches of July 4th, but those celebrations will come soon enough. The question is: what kind of country will we be when that day arrives? Let’s make sure that when America turns 250, she’s not limping into it — she’s standing tall, proud, and faithful. Let’s be in the best spiritual, cultural, and moral shape we’ve ever been. That would be the greatest gift we could give to the generations who will inherit her next.

Our anthem says it best: “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” Not the land of the perfect. Not the home of the comfortable. But of the brave — the men and women who choose hope over hate, sacrifice over cynicism, and God over government.

That’s the American spirit. And it’s still alive.

You just have to look around.

Because it’s us.

It’s We the People.

Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast “We The People.” Follow him on Instagram and X @GatesGarciaFL.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.