Reformers: Fill Medical Shortage with Unmatched U.S. Doctors, Not 40K More Foreign Workers

The group Doctors Without Jobs is asking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to allow American doctors, unmatched for residencies, to fill job shortages in the United States medical industry rather than importing an additional 40,000 foreign nurses and physicians.

Sens. David Perdue (R-GA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Todd Young (R-IN), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Reps. Tom Cole (R-OK), Don Bacon (R-NE), Brad Schneider (D-IL), and Abby Finkenauer (D-IA) are lobbying to pass the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act to give about 40,000 unused green cards to foreign nurses and physicians to take U.S. healthcare jobs.

Kevin Lynn, with Doctors Without Jobs, is asking McConnell to reject the proposal and instead allow unmatched American doctors to fill job shortages in the healthcare industry. Lynn said the U.S. must not “become more dependent on foreign healthcare workers,” noting that in 2020, alone, more than 4,200 foreign doctors were able to take limited U.S. taxpayer-funded residency spots.

Lynn writes in the letter obtained by Breitbart News:

America has many physicians who can fill vital roles fighting the coronavirus as well as provide the full spectrum and range of healthcare services needed by our citizenry. Incredibly, there are 1,118 graduates of U.S. medical schools and over 2,000 U.S. citizens who graduated from foreign medical schools in 2020 that did not receive residencies at U.S. teaching hospitals. These doctors are ready and waiting to be of service. [Emphasis added]

However, at the same time, 4,222 non-U.S. citizen international medical graduates from medical schools outside the U.S. received medical residencies, which are largely funded by U.S. taxpayers (via Medicare funding). In fact, each year since 2011, the number of international medical graduates receiving U.S. residencies has increased — from 2,721 in 2011 to more than 4,200 in 2020, a total of more than 36,000 foreign doctors in a ten-year period. [Emphasis added]

Lynn said “the solution is not to bring in more foreign physicians,” but instead jobs needing to be filled should go to unmatched American doctors.

The full letter can be read here:

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has likewise highlighted that Durbin and Perdue’s legislation does not specify that the additional 40,000 imported foreign nurses and doctors work on treatment or research related to the Chinese coronavirus.

“This means that tens of thousands of foreign healthcare workers could enter the United States and have no measurable impact on fighting the pandemic, while taking jobs from unmatched American doctors and laid off nurses,” a FAIR analysis circulated to Senate staff states.

Every year, thousands of foreign nurses and physicians fill limited residency spots while American medical graduates go unmatched. Those foreign doctors often arrive on the H-1B and J-1 visas.

Many of those unmatched American doctors have spoken out, asking President Trump to give priority to them for shortages in the industry. They have said that while they go unmatched and saddled with medical school student loans, imported foreign doctors often get free educations from their governments.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.