SENATOR CONRAD INTRODUCES PHYSICIAN IMMIGRATION BILL
This is a very important proposal that would permanently extend the Conrad 30 J-1 waiver program for doctors working in medically underserved areas. This vital program expires in June and it is vital that Congress pass an extension bill soon. The bill would also create an H-1B cap exemption for certain doctors that work in underserved areas as well as rewarding the service with an exemption from employment-based green card caps. The bill number is S.2672 and I am attaching it here - Download s.2672.pdf .
Dan Steyn and Mark Kirkorian are as usual opposed to the bill. They have consistently said that if we want more doctors and nurses we need to double the salaries to attract them to rural areas. They think most of us are fools. Already we spend 16% of our GDP on health care. If we double the salaries, someone will have to pay and that someone will not be insurance companies and certainly would not be hospitals (some of which may be forced to go out of business)..it would be the elderly and the infirm, who would be dropped from the coverage. John Maynard Keynes, the famous British Economist once said, "in the long run we all will be dead." If we follow the prescriptions of Steyn and Kirkorian, in the short run we all will be dead or at least the elderly and the infirm. Perhaps that is what the antis want. Full twenty years ago, Richard Lamm, then the governor of Colorado suggested that all the elderly should roll over and die. Perhaps Steyn and Kirkorian are interested in implementing such a policy of killing off our elderly and infirm..only a few notable murderous regimes did that...the Nazis being one of them.
Posted by: George Chell | February 29, 2008 at 04:50 AM
This is a great boon to all the rural areas in this country suffering the worst of the Physician shortage. This program has been in effect since 1994 and despite this, as well as other programs like the NHSC program for loan forgiveness, these areas remain short. Were it not for such programs, rural areas would be in dire straights.
I can't imagine that there would be any resistance to this sensible piece of legislation that would clearly benefit American citizens first and immigrants second. Then again in this immigration climate anything is possible.
Over 1000 US trained doctors a year are being placed in places they are needed most in this country due to this program. It should be made permanent with these beneficial revisions.
Posted by: alterego | February 28, 2008 at 07:35 PM
This is great news, many thanks to Senator Conrad and his staffers for their efforts. Kudos also to the attorneys group including Greg and the IV-Physicians group for pushing this bill to this point. Let's hope this small measure that enhances health care availability in under served areas will sail through.
Posted by: paskal | February 28, 2008 at 04:40 PM
Why don't they take an effort to revive the Schedule A recapture or combine it with this new Physician Immigration bill. They waste their time on hearing about steroid use in sports!!!!!!!
Posted by: | February 28, 2008 at 02:18 PM
The house is trying to act on another bad Immigration bill.
Pressure is mounting in the Democratic-led House of Representatives to act on the SAVE Act (HR 4088), an enforcement-only bill introduced and sponsored by more than 140 Democratic and Republican members of Congress.
We nee to make sure Congress understands that the SAVE Act is not a solution. Write Your Congressperson and Senators at:
http://www.immigrantslist.org/save
The SAVE Act would require approximately six million employers to verify the work status of more than 130 million workers within four years using a system that has an error rate of almost 10%!
If this law were in place now, the errors in the SSA database alone could result in 2.5 million people a year being misidentified as unauthorized for employment, even US Citizens!
It would make it easier for the government to put religious and humanitarian workers behind bars for so-called "alien smuggling" and waste millions of tax-payer dollars on enforcement, detention and deportation programs that have been tried for the last twenty years and failed to end unauthorized immigration.
Go to: http://www.immigrantslist.org/save
We can't sit back and allow this kind of legislation pass. Please write your representatives now. Once you do, forward this email to 10 people so we can keep the momentum going.
Thank you for all that you're doing,
Drew Seman
Executive Director
Posted by: Another voice | February 28, 2008 at 02:05 PM