HARLINGEN, Texas (Border Report) — A quarter of physicians in the United States are foreign born but new immigration policies threaten them from coming, according to the author of a new book.
On this episode of Border Report Live, Harvard University Associate Professor Eram Alam, author of the new book “The Care of Foreigners — How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare,” talks with South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez.
Alam writes that 1 in 4 physicians in the United States are foreign-born, and many from South Asia. They serve in rural and underserved U.S. communities, including many border towns.
These physicians “are shouldering the care” of many U.S. citizens in places that others won’t work, she says.
By 2036, the United States could be short 86,000 physicians, she writes.
But new exorbitant charges imposed by the Trump administration for H-1B visas, which the foreign-born physicians need to work in the United States, could drive down their numbers, she says. President Trump this year announced a fee of $100,000 for H-1B visas, which some rural clinics and hospitals cannot afford to pay per foreign-born physician they want to employ.
“Imagine if a clinic has 10 of these physicians. They’d have to pay $1 million in visa fees,” she said.
Immigration laws in the 1960s opened up the U.S. market to foreign-trained physicians. And after the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) was passed more, came to help supply healthcare needs for a growing population.
The current government shutdown is a standoff between Republicans and Democrats, who won’t approve a stop-gap spending measure unless GOP lawmakers agree to extend tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. What will happen to these physicians then?
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