The AMA is backing a bipartisan, bicameral bill that would “recapture” 15,000 unused immigrant visas for physicians and 25,000 unused immigrant visas for nurses to help alleviate the physician and health-professional shortage in the United States. The legislation would also exempt unused visas from per-country caps while ensuring that visa recipients don’t displace U.S. physicians.
Originally introduced during the COVID-19 public health emergency, Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), along with Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.), reintroduced the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (H.R. 5283; S. 2759) in September.
The U.S. faces a projected shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, half of which represent nonprimary care specialty physicians. The bill helps solidify positions for foreign-born international medical graduates (IMGs) to boost the physician workforce.
The AMA wants all patients, especially those in rural and underserved areas, to have access to physicians and high-quality care.
“In keeping with that mission, the AMA strongly supports the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act and applauds the leadership of Sens. Durbin and Cramer, along with Reps. Schneider and Bacon,” AMA President Bobby Mukkamala, MD, said in a joint House-Senate press release announcing the bill’s introduction.
“As the son of two international medical graduates who came to Flint, Michigan, I know this legislation would strengthen our health care workforce and expand access to care for communities most in need,” said Dr. Mukkamala.
Reissuance over 3 years
The bill would allow for unused green cards from 1992 to 2024 to be used over a three-year period, following the bill’s date of enactment. These are green cards that Congress previously authorized. Family members of physicians and nurses would also be eligible for the unused green cards.
Employers must attest that overseas immigrants who receive the unused green cards will not displace a U.S. worker.
Additionally, eligible immigrant physicians and nurses must meet licensing requirements, pay filing fees, and clear rigorous national security and criminal history background checks to receive these unused visas.
“Immigrant nurses and doctors have always played a critical role in our health care system, and they saw us through the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Sen. Durbin, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in the joint press release.
“After years of caring for patients, it’s unacceptable that thousands of trained health care professionals currently working in the U.S. on temporary visas are stuck in the green-card backlog while our country faces dire health care shortages. The bipartisan Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act strengthens the health care workforce and helps to address the extensive immigration backlog.”
In many instances, these immigrant physicians provide the only specialty care that’s available in their community, noted Sen. Cramer. The bill addresses this urgent need and will “allow highly skilled professionals to assist in solving the workforce and patient care demands of our communities without adding any numbers to the immigrant roster—just a realignment.”
Other organizations supporting the bill include the American Hospital Association, American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Neurology. The AMA looks forward to working with leaders in the House and Senate in hopes of expeditiously passing this important legislation.
