MEDICOS
MAY STILL GET AN H-1B
Things may be looking up for Indian medical students in the
US . The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border
Security and Claims reauthorised a programme to allow foreign
nationals who complete medical school in the United States
to stay in the country if they agree to work as physicians
in rural and underserved areas.
The Bill, HR 4453,
Access to Rural Physicians Improvement Act of 2004, would
let foreign physicians to obtain a three-year waiver after
their J-1 visa has expired without first returning to their
country.
It allows the physician
to obtain an H-1B visa , even if the H-1B visa cap has been
met. The Bill was introduced by Representative Jerry Moran
in late May. It has now been referred back to the House Committee
on Judiciary.
This is another
in a series of similar Bills in the US Congress . Senator
Kent Conrad introduced a Bill to improve access to physicians
in medically underserved areas (S 2302), while in the House
of Representatives, Representative Jerry Moran has introduced
a similar Bill (HR 4156) "to improve access to physicians
in medically underserved areas".
The Bills have
proposed expanding the visa waiver programme. Under the existing
visa waiver programme, foreign physicians can avoid returning
to their home countries after completing their course of study
by working in areas where medical help is inadequate.
However, the number
of such waivers are few. The proposed legislation would increase
the numbers keeping in mind the acute shortage of doctors.
A report by the Council on Graduate Medical education found
that problems of access to medical care persist in rural and
inner-city areas despite large increases in the number of
physicians in the US.
Factors to this
scarcity are problems of access, including economic and social
circumstances of rural and inner-city areas as well as the
shortage of minority and generalist physicians.
The report concludes
that "minority physicians and physicians in the three
primary care specialties (family practice, general internal
medicine, and general pediatrics) are more likely to serve
inner-city populations".
It is these areas
that could attract foreign physicians as well. In this context,
the Moran Bill seeks to ensure that areas presently suffering
from lack of general physicians do not reach a crisis stage.
