The United States is a relatively new country. However, the nation’s population is older than it has ever been, which has meaningful and important impacts on how we ensure the provision of healthcare.

 

Healthcare shortages across the country

 

The shortage of doctors and support staff in the U.S., including nurses and allied healthcare workers, is well documented and will only continue to grow. By 2034, the country will face a shortage up to 124,000 doctors! Currently, more than 95 million people in the U.S.—a third of the country’s population—live in healthcare shortage areas.

 

This shortage means people must travel further distances to receive care, particularly in rural areas, or wait substantially longer to be seen for care. Though there is not a singular “quick fix” to the healthcare shortage the country is facing, immigration reform is a surefire, short-term mechanism to help alleviate the issue and to begin ensuring that all Americans can secure timely and accessible healthcare.

Addressing the shortage through legislation

 

This shortage of access to healthcare in the U.S. is not new. In 1994, to address the staggering physician shortages in North Dakota, Senator Kent Conrad championed what became what we now know as the “Conrad State 20” J-1 waiver legislation.

 

Senator Conrad saw an opportunity to enhance the country’s medical system using U.S.-trained foreign national physicians by placing them into rural and urban underserved communities. Since its inception, the Conrad program has placed nearly 20,000 physicians in underserved rural and urban communities across the country.

 

Further, data confirms that these U.S.-trained foreign national physicians stay in underserved areas longer than their U.S. counterparts – in other words, they become part of the fabric of these underserved communities.

 

Yet, nearly 30 years later, the only modernization Congress has enacted to this program was to increase the limit to 30 international medicine graduates per state in 2002 (now known as the “Conrad State 30”). Due to lack of change across our immigration programs in more than 20 years, more than half of the U.S. Conrad state programs need well over 30 waivers to meet the growing underserved demands in their states.

Recent developments

Understanding the need for swift action to address this ongoing issue, members of Congress continue to advance smart reform. On March 10, 2023, Senator Amy Klobuchar reintroduced the Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Reauthorization Act (S.665) with 20 co-sponsors.

Additionally, on July 25, 2023, Representative Brad Schneider reintroduced the companion Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4942) with 51 co-sponsors.

Through this bill, Congress would modernize our existing Conrad program and give each state the ability to ensure that U.S.-trained foreign national physicians remain in the U.S. after their residency and fellowship training if they agree to work in underserved rural or urban areas.

Need to know more?

Lack of access to equitable healthcare is a national emergency, and effectuating smart immigration reform allows U.S.-trained foreign national doctors to immediately help address the country’s ongoing shortage of access to medical care.

 

For questions regarding efforts to address this healthcare shortage or how Fragomen can help through immigration solutions, please contact Partner Sarah Peterson at [email protected].

 

This blog was published on August 23, 2023, and due to the circumstances, there are frequent changes. To keep up to date with all the latest updates on global immigration, please subscribe to our alerts and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.