President Barack Obama had recently praised Mayo Clinic for being a national model for substantial and efficient health care, but the facility has now announced that it will stop accepting some Medicare patients, starting tomorrow, at one of its key facilities in Arizona, on the grounds that the US Government is paying too little.

Over 3,000 patients eligible in the area for Medicare, which is the Government's largest healthcare insurance program, will have to give up their cover and pay cash if they want to continue consulting their regular doctors at the Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, as has been confirmed by Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman.

The decision has been designated as the two-year pilot project, and it has been confirmed that it would not affect other Mayo centers across Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

Mayo's decision to cease looking at cases of Medicare patients might just start a trend which could be copied by family doctors, some of who have already stopped accepting new patients from the program, as has been shared by Lori Heim, President of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

"Many physicians have said, ‘I simply cannot afford to keep taking care of Medicare patients. If you truly know your business costs and you are losing money, it doesn’t make sense to do more of it", said Dr. Heim.