Cardiology Wait Claim Blown Up

A Michigan Senate candidate’s claim that Americans wait “two and a half months” to see a cardiologist does not match the industry’s own survey data, which puts the average closer to one month.

Story Snapshot

Abdul El-Sayed told Fox News that the average American waits “around 2.5 months” for a cardiologist appointment.
AMN Healthcare’s 2025 survey found the real national average is 32.7 days, roughly one month.
Fox host Will Cain pushed back on air, saying “2.5 months isn’t an average wait anywhere.”
Wait times swing wildly by city, from one day in some markets to 175 days in others.
Nearly half of U.S. counties have no practicing cardiologist at all, a deeper problem both parties largely ignore.

Candidate’s Claim Draws Fire

Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, told Fox News host Martha MacCallum that “the average wait time to see a cardiologist in America is around 2.5 months.” He repeated the figure later as “two and a half months”, using it to argue the current health care system already forces long delays, before pivoting to make his case for a government-run alternative.

Fox host Will Cain challenged the number directly during the segment, saying the average wait for a non-emergency cardiology visit runs closer to one month. He told El-Sayed flatly that “2.5 months isn’t an average wait anywhere,” setting off a wider debate over whether the candidate had inflated a real problem to sell a bigger policy fix.

What the Survey Data Actually Shows

AMN Healthcare, a staffing firm that has tracked physician appointment waits since 2004, found the average cardiology wait was 32.7 days in its 2025 survey. That figure is less than half of El-Sayed’s 75-day claim. The same survey found waits ranging from one day to 175 days depending on the office, which means some patients do face delays near his number, even if it is not the typical experience.

The American College of Cardiology has separately tracked rising waits over time, citing a 26% jump in average cardiovascular visit delays between 2017 and 2022, rising to 26.6 days. A smaller peer-reviewed study on cardiovascular disease prevention found a similar 36-day average for scheduling. Every credible dataset gathered points to roughly one month, not two and a half.

Geography Explains Much of the Gap

National averages mask huge local differences. AMN’s metro-level data showed Boston patients waiting 65 days while Atlanta patients waited just 12. Rural counties face an even starker problem: nearly half of all U.S. counties, home to 22 million people, have no practicing cardiologist whatsoever, forcing patients to travel long distances or wait months for a visiting specialist.

Cardiologists and workforce researchers expect the shortage to worsen. Federal projections cited by trade outlets show demand for cardiologists rising nearly 16% by 2037 while supply grows only 2%, with the steepest shortfalls hitting the West and rural communities. That trend, not any single candidate’s talking point, is the stat most likely to affect patients in the coming decade.

A Debate That Obscures the Real Crisis

Online reaction split along familiar lines, with critics on social media accusing El-Sayed of “lying” while others shared personal stories of waiting two months or more for cardiology appointments, showing the lived experience varies as much as the survey data itself.

He's wrong
The claim is high. The best recent figure is about one month, not 2½ months.

AMN Healthcare’s 2025 Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times found an average wait of 32.7 days for a new, non-urgent cardiology appointment in 15 large U.S. metro areas. That is roughly…

— RichFVNC (@RichFVNC) October 6, 2026

Both sides of the health care debate agree on one point buried under the fact-check: a real shortage of heart specialists exists, and it is getting worse. Whether the fix is a government-run system, as El-Sayed argues, or market-based reforms favored by critics, voters on the left and right share growing frustration that neither party has slowed the decline in basic access to care, regardless of whose statistic turns out to be more precise.