Friday, October 13, 2017

Aaron Carroll — Why America Needs Foreign Medical Graduates

The American system relies to a surprising extent on foreign medical graduates, most of whom are citizens of other countries when they arrive. By any objective standard, the United States trains far too few physicians to care for all the patients who need them. We rank toward the bottom of developed nations with respect to medical graduates per population.…
Although many feared that coverage expansions from the Affordable Care Act might lead to an overwhelmed physician work force, that didn’t happen. That doesn’t mean that America doesn’t have a shortage of physician services, especially when it comes to the care of the oldest, the poorest and the most geographically isolated among us. Even though we know foreign medical graduates care for those patients disproportionately, we make it very difficult for many born and trained elsewhere to practice here. Some Americans need these doctors desperately. Evidence suggests that policies should be made to attract them, not deter them.
This is a New York Times piece.

The "solution" of importing medical personnel is completely bonkers. 

First, and most importantly, it deprives the people of other countries of an important real resources for which they receive exactly nothing. It is grossly unfair.

Secondly, the US is perfectly capable of recruiting and training its own medical personnel as one of the most highly develop nations. 

This should be a scandal of incompetence in resource management and scamming off the rest of the world.

The Incidental Economist
Why America Needs Foreign Medical Graduates
Aaron Carroll

No comments: