Our best health-care reinforcements are tangled up in red tape
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Version 0 of 1. THE U.S. health-care system, straining under the weight of a raging disease, faces an all-hands-on-deck crisis. But thousands of foreign-born doctors already working legally in medical facilities around the country are blocked by visa strictures and other red tape from going where they’re most critically needed. Many would jump at the chance to lend a hand, if only federal agencies and Congress would modify rules that made sense in a pre-pandemic world but no longer do. Among the foreign-trained doctors who could pitch in are roughly 10,000 holders of H-1B visas, which confer temporary work authorization in the United States for professionals in a range of fields. Under the terms of those visas, physicians can practice at the hospital or other medical facility that employs them but nowhere else unless they are granted a hard-to-get waiver. Full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic The major rationale for that restriction is to prevent immigrant professionals from competing with Americans, which could theoretically depress wages in certain communities. But competition from immigrant doctors is not the problem facing hospitals struggling to treat patients in the pandemic’s path; the shortage of qualified personnel is. After Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) pleaded for doctors across the country to come to New York to help out, some immigrant doctors with H-1B visas reported that they had been contacted by recruiters and were eager to answer the call but were legally prohibited from doing so. Congress could modify the rules governing the H-1B visa program, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers it, could probably relax the regulations in the name of extenuating circumstances. That would make sense, and the logic for doing so is likely to strengthen as the pandemic makes its way into smaller communities that are ill-equipped to respond. Even before the current emergency, some communities across the country, especially in rural areas, were facing a growing shortage of physicians, which was projected to swell into the tens of thousands over the coming decade. Now, in coronavirus hot spots, hospitals are at or beyond capacity, and not only because they are flooded with covid-19 patients. The pathogen has so taxed existing health-care resources that people afflicted with other illnesses are also desperate to find care. The Opinions section is looking for stories of how the coronavirus has affected people of all walks of life. Write to us. There are other ways the administration could tap the skills of foreign-born doctors, including those trained in this country. It could relax rules governing immigrant doctors who are residents in U.S. hospitals on J-1 visas, to allow them to continue practicing here when those visas expire. Britain recently did something similar by automatically extending visas that would otherwise expire in the coming months for doctors and other health professionals. As it is, about 17 percent of all health-care workers in the United States are foreign-born, including more than 1 in 4 doctors. Many Americans have long entrusted their medical treatment to immigrants. Turning to current visa-holders for help in a crisis will not diminish the standard of care. It would, however, do something to ease the crushing burden under which hospitals will be working for months to come. Read more: Dany Bahar: Suspending immigration would only hurt America’s post-coronavirus recovery The Post’s View: The pandemic didn’t come out of nowhere. The U.S. ignored the warnings. David Ignatius: How to avoid a pandemic Patriot Act We need smart solutions to mitigate the coronavirus’s impact. Here are 2 7 . Leana S. Wen: 7 things the administration is getting wrong about testing |