Medical students recently celebrated “Match Day,” when aspiring doctors learn where they’ll be spending the next few years in residency to complete their training.
America needs many more physicians — as many as 86,000 by 2036, according to projections released this week by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Policymakers can help plug that gap by easing regulatory burdens that keep qualified, internationally trained physicians from practicing in the United States.
Doctors with degrees from international medical schools provide excellent care, research shows. One BMJ paper found that Medicare patients treated by general internists who graduated from a medical school outside the U.S. had lower mortality rates than those treated by U.S. medical school graduates.
However, many foreign-trained doctors must overcome extra hurdles to practice in America. They’re required to complete a residency program in the U.S. or Canada, even if they’ve already done so in their home country, before gaining a state license. The whole process can take years.
Facing that timeline, many doctors who migrate to the U.S. choose not to practice. One survey of roughly 300 immigrant physicians found that only 1 in 3 worked as a medical resident or physician in America. The others settled for work in healthcare education, lab technology, research, or other sectors in which they wouldn’t be able to apply their skills to the fullest by caring for patients.
States increasingly recognize they shouldn’t prevent qualified doctors from practicing. In April 2023, Tennessee rolled back residency requirements for certain internationally trained physicians. Starting this July 1, Tennessee’s legal immigrant doctors can obtain a permit to work for two years at an eligible U.S. healthcare facility — and then apply for full licensure. Illinois recently greenlit a similar law, effective this coming January.
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Thirteen other states have passed or started considering legislation to help doctors trained abroad practice more quickly in the U.S.
Qualified physicians shouldn’t be working as case managers or medical interpreters when they could be pulling out their stethoscopes and helping provide the care patients desperately need. State laws responding to that reality are good news.
Sally C. Pipes (@sallypipes) is president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith fellow in healthcare policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All (Encounter 2020).
