Healthcare
In the coming years, as our country’s 76.4 million baby boomers enter their elderly years, our country’s healthcare system will face unprecedented demand, adding jobs faster than any other segment of our economy. Yet, employers are already finding that there are not enough unemployed healthcare workers to fill vacant positions, and in some rural areas, shortages are particularly acute.
For several reasons, immigrants have been a particularly important stopgap filling some of our most glaring healthcare needs. Immigrants are twice as likely as native-born to fill lesser skilled home health aide positions, but also twice as likely to fill high-skilled positions as physicians and surgeons. And because immigrants tend to be more willing to move for a job than the native-born, and there are visa provisions to encourage this, immigrants also fill doctor vacancies in some of our rural communities with the greatest need. A smarter immigration system, however, could help fill far more gaps in our healthcare system, benefiting patients.
This Immigrant Researcher is Changing the Future of Cancer Treatment, But Immigration Slowed his Progress
Radiology researcher Anthony Chang came to the United States from Taiwan in the 1990s to study at Vanderbilt and Yale, earned a PhD in experimental physics from the University of Texas, and was hired to direct the imaging laboratory at the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, where he researched… Read More
A Helping Hand: How Immigrants Can Fill Home Health Aide Shortages in America’s Rural Communities
By 2030, America’s population of seniors will reach 71.5 million–a two-fold increase in the span of thirty years. As this demographic shift unfolds, healthcare services will be in increasingly high demand. A report by New American Economy projects that by 2022, the number of needed home health aides will increase… Read More
Municipality, NAE Release Anchorage-Specific Data on New Americans’ Contributions to Local Economy
Municipality, NAE Release Anchorage-Specific Data on New Americans’ Contributions to Local Economy ANCHORAGE, AK – Today at noon, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, First Lady Dr. Mara Kimmel, and AEDC President Bill Popp will host a “Lunchtime Talk” to discuss the economic impacts of new Americans in Anchorage. At… Read More
Cuban Immigrant Comes Up with a Valuable Healthcare Idea for Visitors
“I’m so blessed to have been given the opportunity by this wonderful country to enter as an immigrant and build my life here,” says Cuban-born entrepreneur Ileana Thomas, the founding CEO of Medical Services Corporation (MSC), an Orlando-based company that provides medical “house calls” to tourists. Thomas had arrived in… Read More
State Senator Grew Up Watching His Immigrant Parents Chase The American Dream — Now He’s Living it
When Kentucky Senator Ralph Alvarado took the stage on day three of the Republican National Convention in July 2016, he told the crowd, “Being the son of immigrants, I saw firsthand their sacrifice to provide our family a better life. I watched their strong and quiet commitment to hard… Read More
Lawful Status Allows Mexican Immigrant To Help His Neighbors Get the Healthcare They Need
Juan Carlos Diaz grew up in a crowded home in Goshen, Indiana, surrounded by friends and family, some with legal status, some without. It was a blue-collar upbringing. Virtually all the adults he knew worked in Indian’s robust RV manufacturing industry, where four of every five U.S.-made RVs are built… Read More
Iraqi-American Doctor Who Blew Whistle on Flint Water Crisis Asks, What if I Hadn’t Been Here?
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha rose to national fame after blowing the whistle on high blood-lead levels in the children of Flint, Michigan, where she’s a pediatrician and public health advocate. Now she’s supervising a team of 20 researchers and other staff as director of the city’s Pediatric Public Health Initiative, which… Read More
This Syrian-Born Doctor is Helping to Alleviate Nevada’s Physician Shortage
It took the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Las Vegas three years to fill a job opening for a pediatric gastroenterologist. This is hardly a surprise given the nationwide shortage of physicians with a pediatric subspecialty, a shortage that means families often have to wait months… Read More
Without Immigrant Doctors, This Small Town Would Have Almost No Access to Physicians
It’s a rare day that Dr. Emmanuel Barias isn’t asked medical questions when he’s out and about town. “Dr. Manny!” is a constant refrain, the melody that accompanies his life in his adopted Oklahoma town. While eating at a cafe, a woman tells him she’s lost weight and asks… Read More
When This Hospital Needed More Doctors, An Indian-Born Cardiologist Stepped Up to Help
Dr. Ashu Dhanjal, an invasive cardiologist originally from India, is one of the several foreign-born doctors that in recent years have become an important part of the healthcare infrastructure in mountainous, rural West Virginia. When Dhanjal arrived in 2013, the Logan Regional Medical Center, where she was based, had… Read More
Help Wanted
In all 50 states, there are already far more healthcare jobs open than there are workers available to fill them. Many policymakers worry that extreme demands on the healthcare system are coming at a time when many parts of the country still lack enough physicians and healthcare providers to offer adequate—or even basic—levels of care.
Healthcare Jobs Advertised for Each Unemployed Health Worker, 2013
Rural Provider Shortages
Rural communities, in many ways, feel healthcare worker shortages most acutely. Rural counties, on average, have far fewer doctors or home health aides per capita than more urban ones. But their healthcare needs are often greater—particularly given their older populations and higher rates of disability. Foreign-born physicians, who are often more willing to relocate than native-born colleagues, are a valuable resource for these medically underserved areas.
Indicators of Health Demand, Metro vs. Nonmetro Areas, 2014
Ratio of Providers to Population in Different County Types, 2014
The Role of Immigrants
In many health occupations, from surgeons to home health aides, immigrants already make up a large share of active workers. As the U.S. population continues to age and as healthcare demands increase, immigrants are expected to play an increasingly important role in the health of the nation.
Top Healthcare Jobs by Share of Foreign-Born Workers, 2018
Aging Baby Boomers
The 76.4 million baby boomers living in America represent a major challenge to our broader healthcare system. Baby boomers are expected to live longer than past generations, while also battling chronic, longstanding conditions. If caregivers remain scarce in some parts of the country, adult children could drop out of the labor force in large numbers to care for aging parents—a potential setback for the economy overall.
Sources:
2 Wan He et al., “65+ in the United States: 2005,” Current Population Reports: Special Studies (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Aging and U.S. Census Bureau, December 2005). Available online.; Carrie A. Werner, “The Older Population: 2010,” 2010 Census Briefs, November 2011. Available online.
3 Keehan, Sean P, Helen C. Lazenby, Mark A. Zezza, and Aaron S. Catlin, “Age Estimates in the National Health Accounts,” Health Care Financing Review 2, no. 2 (2003). Web Exclusive.
4MetLife, “Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers: Double Jeopardy for Baby Boomers Caring for Their Parents,” June 2011. Available online.
Size of U.S. Population, Age 65+
Home Health Aides
As the share of the U.S. population over 65 continues to increase, demand for home health aides is expected to soar. But the U.S.-born workers who typically fill such jobs—working age women with less than a bachelor’s degree—is shrinking. Immigrants are already playing an outsized role as home health aides, and can help address our country’s growing needs for such workers in the future.
Psychiatrists
An estimated one in five Americans experiences a mental health issue each year, yet more than 40 percent never receive care.5 One reason why so many individuals go untreated and undiagnosed: The country’s large and growing shortage of mental health professionals, an issue that is particularly acute in America’s rural communities. While immigrants already play a large role in our psychiatry workforce, more could be done to leverage their training and skills.
Sources:
5 Pamela S. Hyde and Paolo Del Vecchio, “Five Point Plan to Improve the Nation’s Mental Health,” Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, n.d. Available online.; Patrick W. Corrigan, Benjamin G. Druss, and Deborah A. Perlick, “The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care,” Association for Psychological Science, August 1, 2014. Available online.
States with the Most Days of Decreased or Compromised Worker Productivity Due to Inadequate Mental Healthcare
Visa Obstacles
Despite the critical role immigrants play in the healthcare workforce, the U.S. immigration system makes it difficult for employers to recruit immigrants, even when no U.S.-born workers are available. Many foreign medical residents who study in the United States come on the J-1 visa, a visa that requires them to return home for at least two years after completing their training. One program, The Conrad 30 Waiver, allows states to waive this return requirement for foreign medical residents willing to take jobs in underserved areas. The program, however, is far too limited to meet current needs. Expanding the Conrad 30 program and exploring other fixes—like offering a dedicated temporary work visa to health workers—would go a long way towards addressing our healthcare labor force challenges. So would streamlining the relicensing process for some foreign-trained doctors already here.
Sources:
6 José Ramón Fernández-Peña, Founder and Director of Welcome Back Initiative, August 2015.
7 Ibid.
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