For many of us, summer means attending backyard barbecues, laughing with neighbors and friends, watching kids chase fireflies, and enjoying fireworks lighting up the night. But in a split second, that can all change. Your daughter trips, gashing her knee on a rock. Your dad, laughing one moment, clutches his chest the next. Suddenly, you’re racing to the emergency room—confident it’s open, staffed, and ready.

That’s the unspoken promise of our health care system: when the worst happens, an ER will be there, no questions asked.

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But that promise is about to become harder to keep. A quiet policy change tucked into the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act” cuts the provider tax nationwide from 6% to 3.5% over the coming years. That might sound like easy-to-ignore bureaucratic jargon, but for families across America—who trust the ER will be there when a fever spikes or a bone breaks—this change will likely mean dramatically longer waits, overwhelmed doctors, and a system pushed to the brink.

Here’s why: Our health care system is like a chain of dominoes. ERs, hospitals, and nursing homes are all connected, and the provider tax is one of the critical........

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