We write almost daily about low-skilled American workers being replaced by immigrant and refugee laborers, but I had no clue it was happening at the other end of the education scale until I read this story from Progressives for Immigration Reform.
Yes, readers there are still people on the Left side of the political spectrum who worry about American workers! In fact…..
I have to laugh, it seems PFIR ‘gets it’ better than does the venerable ‘conservative’ organization, the Heritage Foundation!
7,000 Cuban doctors have been admitted to the US since 2006 while 9,000 American medical school graduates could not find a residency program, a key step in becoming an accredited doctor.
From Kevin Lynn at PFIR:
I was catching up on reading a stack of newspapes that had piled up while pondering what to write for this week’s blog when the answer leapt out at me from the front page of the Sunday local Lancaster, Pennsylvania*** newspaper. Front and center was an article entitled DOCTORS WITHIN BORDERS.
Cuban doctors competing with your sons and daughters in America!
Since 2006, 7,000 Cuban doctors and other healthcare professionals have been admitted to the US under a special government program. The article went on to detail how Church World Services (CWS), a volunteer agency (VOLAG) that specializes in refugee relocation services and garnering large federal government grants in the process, helped to relocate these Cuban healthcare workers here and in 11 other cities.
[….]
I was intrigued to read the article because last summer when I was attending Politicon in Pasadena, CA I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Doug Medina, a graduate of Georgetown University’s medical school who despite his never having failed any clinical course work, and having passed all three licensing exams, was not able to matriculate into a residency training program. Now for those not familiar with medical career paths, following graduation if a doctor cannot be matched with a US residency program at a teaching hospital, they cannot be licensed to practice medicine in the US. It is pretty brutal when you consider a student upon completing medical school could be hamstrung with anywhere from $130,000 to $250,000 in student loan debt (and quite possibly more if you factor in 4 to 5 years of pre-med.) Then to add insult to injury, there is the ever accruing interest at 6.7% which could raise a student’s total liability to over $400,000 over the term of the loans.
According to data from the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), a program that was established in 1952 to assist medical school graduates with finding residency programs in 2016, of 19,692 graduates from US medical schools, 1,900 were not matched with a residency program. Currently, it is believed that there are some 9,000 graduates of US medical schools who were not matched with a residency program and for all intensive purposes will never be able to practice as doctors.
From the PFIR post
It would be one thing if as in the case of Cuba, education was government funded. Here in the US it is not. And the onus is on the student and their family to come up with ways to finance their education. The question then becomes how is a medical school graduate going to service the debt on their loans if they cannot command the salary of a doctor? If plan B is to become a high school biology teacher or a research assistant, then good luck servicing your debt, buying a house, car, and starting a family.
Cut off government funding for Church World Service and save American jobs!
Another thing to consider would be to reign in the VOLAGs such as CWS who have actively lobbied lawmakers to admit more refugees. These VOLAGs are given federal grants based on the number of refugees (or doctors from Cuba) they work to resettle in the United States. This is big money. In the case of CWS, 70.8% or $68,448,159 of last year’s income came directly in the form of grants from the Federal Government. Another solution might be to take a chunk of the $68 million given to CWS and allocate to fund more resident programs. At $50,000 a resident position, the money reallocated from CWS to Medicare could create roughly 1,368 new positions.
Anyone out there with a son or daughter planning to be a doctor better read this carefully!
There is more, continue reading here.
And pay attention! If your church is doing a “Crop Walk!” You are helping CWS change America by changing the people!
Last month I did a podcast for PFIR if you are interested!
***And, for more on “America’s refugee capital”—Lancaster, PA, go here.
