15 percent fewer U.S. medical-school graduates applied to Kentucky residency programs in the 2023-24 academic year, part of a trend related to states’ strong anti-abortion laws enacted after the federal right to abortion was abolished… In OB-GYN programs, there was an even sharper 23% decline… Kentucky hospitals are already dealing with an “acute shortage” of health care workers, with nearly 13,000 job vacancies in hospitals at the end of 2022… [M]ore than half of Kentucky’s 120 counties didn’t have a single OB-GYN specialist in 2022-23…
“You wouldn’t come if you’re a young woman and know that if something happens to you, you might die because they aren’t gonna let you get the health care you need,” [explained one local pediatrician.]
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It’s already one of our very worst states, without adding a health system composed of the dumbest, most desperate MDs in America… or forget MDs… Kentucky will offer its populace their pick of degree mill grads from Dagestan and Irkutsk.
May 19th, 2024 at 11:56AM
I was told the US imported its doctors from India and nurses from the Philippines. I doubt they would decline offers based on state policies.
May 19th, 2024 at 1:48PM
Those groups go to rich places like mine own ‘thesda. Much too good for Paducah. And certainly given the national nursing shortage they are able to select among icky and non-icky states.
May 19th, 2024 at 2:22PM
I was thinking of the future where, presumably, the US could restrict entry unless the doctors and/or nurses agreed to go to specific states. The Philippines are overwhelmingly Catholic so the nurses may not have issues with going to backward areas.
May 19th, 2024 at 3:14PM
Not sure. It’s very non-US to restrict in a top-down way where people can work and live.
And in most of the icky states the problem is evangelical Christian rather than Catholic. Not that any foreign-born Catholic could make sense of the specific madness of reactionary Catholicism in this country.
May 19th, 2024 at 3:52PM
These aren’t exactly the importing I had in mind but restricting where people can go in exchange for immigration benefits is clearly being considered.
1) Apparently there is a process where foreign doctors receiving additional medical training in the States can opt to work in underserved areas instead of returning home for two years.
https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/j-1-visa-waiver
2) There’s also proposed legislation:
https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2023/3/klobuchar-collins-rosen-tillis-reintroduce-bipartisan-legislation-to-build-healthcare-workforce-in-rural-and-medically-underserved-areas
Regarding the nurses from the Philippines, I meant that they may be opposed to abortion and other treatments on their own religious grounds and therefore not concerned about working in states where those are banned.
May 19th, 2024 at 3:55PM
Dmitry: All good points.