More than half of primary care physicians in Massachusetts are no longer accepting new patients, and more patients than ever are facing lengthy wait times to see both primary care and specialty doctors, according to a new report. Despite being the state that was ahead of the game on health care reform when then-Gov. Mitt Romney passed the universal health care law in 2006, a report released by the Massachusetts Medical Society shows critical statistics of health care in the state are worrying doctors.

“Massachusetts has made great strides in securing insurance coverage for its citizens,” says Dr. Alice Coombs, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. “But insurance coverage doesn’t equal access to care. We still have much work to do to reduce wait times and widen access.

This has important implications for health care cost control, as difficulty or delay with routine access to care leads people to seek other options, such as the emergency room, which is much more costly.” In fact, recent statistics from the American College of Emergency Physicians show that more than 80 percent of ER doctors said emergency room visits were increasing in their departments, most reporting “significant” rises.